U.S. wildfire burning near B.C. border puts Grand Forks on alert

A fast-growing wildfire in the United States burning toward the Canada border on Wednesday evening continued to grow overnight, officials say, even as evacuation orders have been lifted.

The Goosmus wildfire has grown to about four square kilometres in size, up from the one square kilometre it was measured at when evacuation orders were put in place for more than 150 properties Wednesday afternoon.

At the time of the order, the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) said the Goosmus wildfire "poses a threat to human life."

However, in an update at around 8 p.m. PT Wednesday, the RDKB said the potential threat of wildfire had diminished, and rescinded the evacuation order.

The rescinded order means around 720 properties are on evacuation alert in the area, which means residents would have to be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.

Mark Stephens with the regional district's emergency operations centre described it as a "very dynamic situation" when reached for an interview shortly after 5 p.m. PT Wednesday.

He said officials in B.C. were notified of fire by their counterparts in Washington state, where it originated.

WATCH | Smoke billows from fire near B.C.-U.S. border:

Wildfire in U.S. burns toward B.C.

2 months ago

Duration 0:49

Residents near the United States border in Grand Forks, B.C. are on alert as a fast-moving wildfire burns toward the border.

"[The fire] was heavily windblown given the cold front that was passing through," Stephens said, adding it had not yet crossed the border into Canada, but small spot fires from embers blowing north were being attended by B.C. crews.

He described the affected area as rural and farmland, and did not say how many residents were estimated to be impacted.

Smoke from the fire is highly visible from Grand Forks, about 350 kilometres directly east of Vancouver, with residents posting pictures of plumes of smoke to social media.

Resident Sahil Bagga described looking up and seeing "a huge fire in the sky."

"Everybody's worried," he said.

High winds, rain in area

Kim Wright, a fire information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said the fire — which was almost completely burning south of the border — covered an area of four square kilometres as of 7:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday.

"We do have a unit crew that is working on the spot fire that is located west of the city of Grand Forks," she told CBC News.

"We do also have an additional unit crew that has been deployed to the border that are helping our American agency partners work on their suppression efforts."

Wright said that crews were seeing winds of around 40 km/h earlier Wednesday evening, with wind gusts reaching speeds of 50 km/h.

She said that winds were forecast to ease throughout the evening, and a band of rain showers could brush the area, bringing around two to five millimetres of rain.

"Overall relative humidity is expected to increase throughout the night, while temperatures are expected to continue to fall," she said.

News of the late-season wildfire came the same day a new federal report warned that B.C. should be prepared for year-round wildfire seasons due to warming conditions leading to extended drought and dry timber.

Researchers predict wildfires will burn 53,000 square kilometres of land nationally this year. That's the second-highest area burned since 2000, outstripped only by the area of land burned in 2023, they said in a report.