Sizzling hot spell settles over B.C. adding to wildfire concerns

Wildfire crews battling several major blazes around British Columbia had a busy but not overwhelming weekend, although the B.C. Wildfire Service says challenging conditions could arrive within days as heat and powerful winds settle over the southern half of the province.

The provincial wildfire service is reporting 373 fires around B.C. as of 5 p.m. PT on Monday, with about nine recorded since Sunday evening and another 11 still ranked as fires of note, meaning they are highly visible or threaten people or property.

One of those, the Rossmoore Lake fire south of Kamloops, now covers more than 72 square kilometres, and on Sunday prompted a revised evacuation order for two properties east of Lac Le Jeune and an updated evacuation alert covering 343 properties.

Plans to carry out controlled burns south of Lac Le Jeune were thwarted by wind on Sunday. However, the wildfire service managed to start the ignitions on Monday evening around 4 p.m., saying that the smoke from the planned burns will likely be visible in the Kamloops area.

In southeastern B.C., the wildfire service says crews were able to strengthen containment lines around a nearly 10-square-kilometre blaze just west of Sparwood as they brace for gusty winds forecast on Thursday.

Matt MacDonald, the lead fire weather forecaster for the B.C. Wildfire Service, told CBC News that lower relative humidity could mean trouble as the heat wave continues in the province.

"Unfortunately, come Thursday, we're keeping a really close eye on this dry cold front ...  that's going to sweep across the province," he said. "It's going to bring strong gusty winds shifting from the southwest to the northwest.

"We may see some lightning accompany this dry cold front on Thursday, which could have the potential of initiating new fires."

MacDonald said the anticipated wildfire conditions on Thursday — after days of extreme heat and a cold front forecast to bring gusts — are likely to be "extreme."

Crews had to work fast to douse flames that broke out Sunday on the hill just above Teck Resources' Trail operations, potentially threatening the worksite and some homes near the community of Warfield.

The wildfire service says one of its helicopters, aided by a full response from Kootenay Boundary firefighters and Teck's trained crews, had handled the suspected human-caused blaze within hours.

The fire danger rating in that area, and for most of southern B.C., is ranked at moderate to high, while mapping shows the majority of the province remains at a drought level of four or five on the five-point scale, meaning serious economic effects from the dry conditions are likely or almost certain.