Menacing ‘perfect storm’ forecast has implications for TNRD evacuees, Ainslie Creek, Pear Lake wildfires

Thompson-Nicola Regional District communications manager Colton Davies is asking for more vigilance and patience from residents on evacuation orders and alerts, with an ominous forecast threatening the region.

“It’s really sort of a perfect storm for what you don’t want to see for the weather,” Davies said. “Extreme heat on Friday [Aug. 21], potential for lightning and possibly dry lightning, and then potential for gusting or erratic winds as the temperature cools down by Saturday and Sunday. At this point, we’re not expecting to change the status of any order or alert areas. Right now, we’re in this holding pattern for the next couple of days.”

Gord Robinson, BC Wildfire Service [BCWS] Fire Information Officer for the Brunswick Complex wildfires, said there are three priority areas for the Ainslie Creek wildfire, which was more than 66,000 hectares as of Thursday [Aug. 20] afternoon.

He said those areas are in Fraser Canyon south of Hell’s Gate near Alexandra Bridge, northeast toward Highway 8 west of Merritt near Nooaitch and east toward Highway 5, Coldwater and Kingsvale.

“We’ve been seeing increasing fire behaviour (in those three areas) through this week as things have gotten hotter and dryer,” Robinson said. “We’ve been making good progress, particularly in that northeast area. They’ve successfully done a series of small ignitions there and have got the guard quite tight to it, significantly reducing the risk in that area.”

Robinson said crews are expecting menacing conditions this weekend.

“We’ll be in what we call crossover, where the temperature exceeds the humidity, and that’s where you start to see really aggressive fire behaviour,” he said. “It could be a challenging couple of days and then we’re looking at potentially wind and thunderstorms into the weekend.”

Robinson said it was a difficult day for crews on the Ainslie Creek wildfire east flank on Wednesday [Aug. 19].

“The fire threw four spot fires across Maka Creek, which is the line they’re trying to hold it at,” he said. “Crews were able to get a hold of those and, with aviation support, were able to hold them and are working to mop them up now. The fire is not continuing to spread east of Maka Creek.”

Robinson said crews carried out a planned ignition northeast of Alexandra Bridge in the Fraser Canyon on Wednesday.

“Upslope from Highway 1, [crews] burned an area of 700 hectares to bring that fire down to the guard, where crews can extinguish and hold it there,” Robinson said. “There will be work ongoing mopping up for quite a while. If we get a north wind in this coming weather this weekend, we don’t want that fire to come to the guard with a lot of wind behind it where it could potentially spot over and continue spreading south down the canyon. The goal of the ignition was to remove that fuel when we had favourable conditions.”

The BCWS on Thursday had 325 wildland firefighters, 95 structural protection firefighters, 18 helicopters and 45 pieces of heavy equipment assigned to the Brunswick Complex, along with support staff, according to Robinson. Most of those resources are tending to the Ainslie Creek wildfire.

Meanwhile, the Pear Lake wildfire was more than 161,000 hectares on Wednesday, with its southernmost point about 20 kilometres northwest of Cache Creek.

Temperatures are expected to exceed 30 C on Friday, with extreme aridness and dry fuels adding to potential for blazes to spark.

Davies is encouraging residents plagued by the Big Bar Complex wildfires to take advantage of the TNRD Resiliency Centre at the Clinton Curling Club.

“When we lifted the [evacuation] order on Saturday morning for a lot of areas and when the Village of Clinton lifted the order, there were hundreds of properties and probably well over 1,000 people in that area who returned to their properties, so pretty high needs,” Davies said.

“The food has gone bad in their fridges. They have a ton of cleaning to do, from smoke in the house or ash on the property. I know thousands of bottles of water have been handed out, hundreds of meals.”

Davies said the resiliency centre will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Saturday. The TNRD will reassess its hours of operation on Sunday.

There has been structure loss on about 126 properties in the TNRD, including about 70 severe cases in which a residence or multiple buildings have been destroyed, according to Davies.

“Probably a majority of those are secondary properties, so fewer people who have lost their primary residence, but that’s still your home and even if it’s your secondary home it’s a sizeable and significant loss,” Davies said.

The TNRD has spent about $5.5 million on Emergency Operations Centre activities since June.

“It’s pretty likely that number will grow significantly by the end of summer,” Davies said. “We’re still full activation. We’re supporting dozens of ranchers, hundreds actually, and thousands of livestock that have been evacuated. The vast majority of that [money] does get reimbursed by the province eventually, but not at the start. Those are expenses the TNRD has to pull out of reserves.”