British Columbia officials say recent rains and cooler temperatures have knocked down wildfire activity, especially in the northern half of the province, but another hot and dry spell is expected to settle in across the southern Interior.
Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma says the weather has offered “much-needed relief” to communities and firefighting crews, and several evacuation orders and alerts have been lifted around the Antler and Shetland creek blazes.
But she says about 1,350 people are still on evacuation orders, primarily in the central Kootenay region of southeastern B.C.
A further 2,800 people have been told to be ready to leave on short notice.
Cliff Chapman, the director of provincial operations with the BC Wildfire Service, says forecasts suggest a “hot, dry pattern” will return in August.
Chapman told a wildfire briefing that another high-pressure ridge could build over B.C. by this weekend, especially for southern parts of the province, ushering in a return to seasonal or above-seasonal temperatures.
“Right now, we’re forecasting for sort of that Kamloops Fire Centre, Southeast Fire Centre, we’re going to see a return to the low- to mid-30 degree temperatures,” he said, adding that will make for “very challenging” firefighting conditions.
“We are looking at probably the next 10 to 14 days of seeing little to no rain in the southern part of the province, and that may also push into the north.”
Many of the roughly 350 wildfires currently active throughout B.C. are concentrated in the southeast, where hundreds of residents of the communities of Slocan and Silverton have been forced out of their homes due to the danger.
The number of active fires is down from more than 400 last week, with 46 percent of the current blazes classified as burning out of control.
The wildfire service says 90 percent of the active fires were sparked by lightning storms that swept over much of the Interior in the last few weeks.
The number of people deployed to fight the fires has grown substantially in the last two weeks to just over 1,500 firefighters and more than 200 structure protection personnel. Just over 190 aircraft are also being used in the battle.
