Two wildfires threatening the village of Clinton, B.C., and the surrounding area merged late Saturday, a day after the Pear Lake blaze destroyed structures, including homes, on the outskirts of the community.
An update from BC Wildfire Service said the Pear Lake and Fiftynine Creek blazes combined and remained very active on Sunday, moving north and northeast of the Chasm area, about 20 kilometres north of Clinton.
Fire information officer Shae Stearns said crews continued to work in Clinton to protect structures and fight what she described as active fire in the community, which was ordered evacuated as the Pear Lake fire surged on Friday.
“There’s no longer like the head of a fire progressing toward Clinton, (it’s) more like decreased fire behaviour,” she said in a phone interview on Sunday.
But there was still “quite a lot of ground firefighting-wise to cover,” she said.
The wildfire service updated its mapping on Sunday, showing the estimated size of the Pear Lake and Fiftynine Creek fires combined was nearly 670 square kilometres. The roughly 250-square-kilometre French Bar Creek fire also continued to burn to the northwest, making up the Big Bar complex of fires.
A local official from Clinton confirmed over the weekend that the Pear Lake blaze inflicted structural losses on Friday, though the village itself was mostly spared.
The owner of a towing and autobody business three kilometres south of Clinton, however, said he and his family lost everything, including their two homes.
Steve Larabie, who initially stayed behind, said there were about 3,000 vehicles and 50 pieces of equipment at the business. Vehicles and excavators were burning and gas and diesel were exploding as the flames roared in, he said on Saturday.
Conditions got so bad that Larabie said he had to flee.
By the next day, the two fires had merged and crossed over a stretch of Highway 97, which would require repairs, Stearns said.
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On the east side of the highway, the wildfire service noted the flames were moving into an area already scarred by wildfire, helping to moderate its activity.
But the region has been plagued by drought, raising the risk of ignitions and aggressive fire behaviour. “The fuels are still very dry, even when we have those cooler temperatures and a higher relative humidity,” Stearns said.
While it was raining in Metro Vancouver on Sunday, she said significant rain was not expected in the Clinton area, about 350 kilometres to the northeast.
To the east, the Central Okanagan emergency management centre issued an evacuation alert for residents of more than 500 properties in the La Casa area north of West Kelowna, B.C., late Saturday due to a nearby blaze, but it was lifted the next day.
“Although the wildfire remains classified as out of control, significant progress has been made by firefighting crews in reducing fire activity and protecting the area,” the centre said in its statement on Sunday.
Crews re-established a perimeter around the fire and reported no spotting or spread, it said.
In the Fraser Canyon, the community of Boston Bar and surrounding areas remained subject to evacuation orders prompted by the Brunswick complex of fires, which together span more than 355 square kilometres.
The wildfire service said in an update Sunday that the Brunswick and Ainslie Creek blazes continued to move south on either side of the Fraser Canyon, but they weren’t growing at a significant rate.
It said there hadn’t been significant growth in the northeast section of the Ainslie Creek fire since July 24, but the blaze remained active.
The Anderson Creek fire was active where it had burned into the Ainslie Creek blaze, consuming patches of unburned fuel, the service said.
The wildfire service’s website showed there were 31 evacuation orders and 28 evacuation alerts across B.C. on Sunday, mainly concentrated in the province’s central and southern Interior.
The service’s provincial situation report said some areas saw rain and cooler temperatures over the weekend, providing temporary relief, but much of B.C. remained wracked by drought with limited rain.
Personnel from Yukon Protective Services, Alberta Wildfire and Mexico are set to arrive in B.C. over the coming days to aid in the fight against about 140 active blazes throughout the province, the service noted.
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