(UPDATE: July 14 @ 9:30 pm) - The Placer Creek wildfire, burning east of Manning Park and Hwy 3, saw slowed growth today.
After being discovered on Monday, the fire ballooned to 2,500 hectares by Monday morning, but the latest update from the BC Wildfire Service Monday night pegs it at 2,600 hectares.
While the area saw some notable wind to start the work week, cooler temperatures and rainfall helped prevent more rapid growth.
Meanwhile, the August Lake wildfire near Princeton Golf Club, around 50 kilometres north of the Placer Creek wildfire, is now being held.
Crews don't expect the fire to grow beyond its current size of 14 hectares and an evacuation order issued by the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen has been downgraded to an alert.
(Original story: July 14 @ 12:10 pm) - The Placer Creek wildfire continues to grow at a rapid rate.
The blaze, which was discovered east of Manning Park and south of Princeton on Saturday, grew to 725 hectares on Sunday and is now listed at 2,500 hectares by the BC Wildfire Service.
According to the Lower Similkmaneen Indian Band (LSIB), an incident management team took over command of the response today and will be managing the incident “for the foreseeable future.”
The BCW has 23 firefighting personnel along with a helicopter and heavy equipment assigned to the Placer Creek wildfire.
“Currently, crews on site are reporting Rank 2 fire behavior, meaning a low vigour surface fire with a slow rate of spread,” the BCWS noted.
“As a cold front passes through, we are expecting to see elevated winds gusting up to 40-60 km/h that could increase fire activity throughout the day.”
While the cooler temperatures and scattered showers will help firefighters’ cause, a return to hot and sunny conditions is expected Tuesday and that trend will continue for multiple days.
No evacuation alerts or orders are in place for this fire, which is burning in a relatively remote area a few kilometres away from Hwy 3.
However, that’s not the case for the much smaller August Lake wildfire, burning around 50 kilometres north near Princeton Golf Club.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen had both an evacuation order and evacuation alert in place for the blaze, but the order has now been downgraded to an alert.
The latest update from the BCWS today has the fire holding around 14 hectares thanks to “minimal growth” overnight.
“Today, the priority remains to be actioning the north and east flanks and establishing a wet line, as well as actioning the south flank of the fire,” the BCWS explained.
The BCWS has 40 firefighters, three helicopters and structure protection personnel responding to the August Lake wildfire.
