Wildfire closest to Lytton, B.C., being held — but fire north of village grows
Evacuation orders related to Nikaia Creek wildfire now rescinded, but Highway 12 closed north of Lytton
A wildfire burning closest to Lytton, B.C., is not expected to grow beyond current perimeters, leading to evacuation orders being rescinded in the area.
The positive news was reported by those fighting the Nikaia Creek fire, which covers an area of just under six hectares across the Fraser River from Lytton.
However, the Izman Creek wildfire north of the village has grown significantly over the last two days. As a result, Highway 12 remains closed to most traffic between Lillooet and Lytton.
The Izman Creek fire covered an area of 130 hectares as of 8:20 p.m. PT Wednesday, more than quadrupling in size from 25 hectares recorded on Tuesday night.
For those closest to the Fraser Canyon village of Lytton, an evacuation order covering two properties was rescinded by the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) on Wednesday as firefighters made progress on the Nikaia Creek fire.
"We hope that the public mind is put at ease knowing that this is now being held, and that crews are engaging in mop-up activities," said B.C. Wildfire Service information officer Taylor Stewart Shantz on Wednesday morning.
Lytton First Nation Chief Niakia Hanna told CBC News on Wednesday afternoon that the nation would likely be calling down its own evacuation alert after fire crews had made assessments.
Hanna acknowledged there was a "heightened level of concern" in the area given a deadly 2021 wildfire that all but destroyed the village of Lytton and caused damage to the Lytton First Nation.
"Knowing that we have sufficient resources and adequate response times to the fires now ... has created a space to give some comfort to our members that we take fire seriously," he told CBC News.
An evacuation order means residents should leave immediately, whereas an evacuation alert means residents should prepare to evacuate their homes with little to no notice.
Fire north of Lytton balloons in size
Shantz said the crews dealing with the Izman Creek wildfire were facing challenging conditions, which meant they couldn't fight it head-on and would have to use indirect attack methods on Wednesday.
"We saw over 30 C in temperature yesterday, and not a lot of recovery overnight," she said. "We've also seen pretty decent winds through the fire centre, and that's expected to continue for the next couple of days."
Both fires near Lytton are suspected to have been caused by human activity, with most of the surrounding region under a high or extreme fire danger rating, according to the province.
"We do encourage the public to engage cautiously with the outdoors, especially given our current fire danger rating," Shantz said.
"It just allows us to be able to more effectively resource those lightning-caused fires when we don't have as many human-caused fires to also be responding to."
Highway 12 is only open to local traffic between Lillooet and Lytton as a result of the blaze.
The fire has resulted in three properties close to the highway being put on evacuation order and nine other properties being put on evacuation alert by the TNRD. The Lytton First Nation has also issued evacuation alerts for three properties along the highway.
Hanna said the First Nation was in talks with officials about providing emergency access along the route, given many essential services were being blocked off due to the highway closure.
There are just over 80 wildfires burning in B.C. as of 3:50 p.m. PT, most of which were caused by lightning.
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With files from Shaurya Kshatri