VANCOUVER - More than 240 wildfires have broken out in B.C. in the past 48 hours and there's no end in sight to the hot, dry conditions that spawned the blazes.
Provincial Fire Information Officer Kim Steinbart says most of the fires have been sparked in the central Interior and most have been caused by lightning.
She says the weather pattern across much of the Cariboo and Kamloops fire centres includes warm, dry mornings changing to afternoon thundershowers or dry lightning -- conditions that aren't expected to end for several days.
Hundreds of fires are burning across B.C. with evacuation orders still in place for two of the blazes — one around a portion of Bonaparte Lake north of Kamloops and the other at the Meldrum Creek fire near Williams Lake.
Several evacuation alerts are also posted and the forest service reports some of the fires, such as the Alexis Creek blaze, 86 kilometres west of Williams Lake, are very aggressive, while others, such as the Yalakom fire near Lillooet, also continue to grow.
A campfire ban is in place across all but a small corner of southeastern B.C., with violators facing fines of 345-dollars if caught beside an open fire — and they could be forced to pay the costs of fighting any wildfire caused by their negligence.
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Fiat lux
1 year ago
What on Earth is this
What on Earth is this campfire pyromania about ?
The first time we came across it when we came to Canada in 1955 and crossed the country, before the Trans Canada Hwy was built, from Montreal to Vancouver on a motorcycle in 4 weeks.
There was stretch of 137 miles of dirt road between Cochrane and Longlac in Ont. without any habitations. We were carrying a small gas cooker and stopped at a bridge called Skunk River for lunch, where there was piece of flat land, cooked a cup of tea in about two minutes and were having our lunch, when a new Dodge, with a couple also drew up and they got out.
The guy took a small axe from the trunk, chopped up some wood lying about, and made a fire to cook up something.
We couldn't believe our eyes, what the point was in fooling around with a campfire, when there were much better and safer ways. But since then we have witnessed and heard of thousands of fires set by some idiots with the same idea, because "When you're out you have to have a campfire!"
What the hell for and what is the origin of this campfire idiocy ?
We now have the whole area around here covered with smoke, luckily, so far no fires nearby, but have our firepumps and hoses ready.
Ed Deak, Big Lake