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CFC update on Spokin Lake, Wildwood and White Lake wildfires

Monday’s burnoff of the Spokin Lake Road fire stayed under control, Cariboo Fire Centre information officer Melinda Paplawski said Tuesday.
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Photo submitted. Skimmers are being used as air support in the wildfire attack, as seen here at the Williams Lake Airport Monday evening.

Monday’s burnoff of the Spokin Lake Road fire stayed under control, Cariboo Fire Centre information officer Melinda Paplawski said Tuesday.

“It put up a ton of smoke and looked worse for a while, but today the crews are out there cleaning up where they did the burn.”

The 2,650 ha. fire is still pretty active, Paplawski said, noting it jumped the guard in a few spots last night but that is something that has been happening all along.

“We will have helicopters on it by 10 a.m. this morning dropping buckets of water on it and structure protection units out there.”

In total there are 108 firefighters, 25 pieces of heavy equipment, line locators and air support attacking the fire Tuesday.

As for the fire’s size, she confirmed it will probably be adjusted after the incident team gets out and measures the burnoff and adds that to the fire’s perimetre.

“We will probably be putting out new maps later this week,” she explained.

White Lake wildfire

The reporting of this fire is changing in the sense that the portion of the fire located on the east side of the Fraser River will be under Paplawski’s watch while the portion of the fire on the west side of the Fraser River will come under the fire information officer covering the Hanceville-Riske Creek wildfire.

“You will see the number of resources listed drop because of that,” Paplawski said. “On this side of the Fraser we will have 101 firefighters, 28 pieces of heavy equipment and air support.”

When asked if the fire is still approximately seven kilometres from the city’s boundary, she said yes, but said it is 3.7 km from the mills.

“We saw quite a bit of activity on that fire Monday within the perimiter of the fire, and the challenge as the weather gets warmer will be to keep it within the permiter.”

At this point the entire White Lake fire, spanning both sides of the river remains an estimated 8,170 ha.

Wildwood Williams Lake Airport wildfire

Still an estimated 13,250 hectares, crews concentrated on the north side of the fire on Monday and are continuing to do the same today as well as on the east flank.

There are 206 firefighters, 47 pieces of heavy equipment, line locators and air support on the fire.

Light winds are still present, but it was already “pretty warm” by 9:30 a.m. Paplawski said.

“And it’s going to get warmer but no big winds are predicted, which is a good thing. The wind will shift directions through the day, but that will be more location specific.”

Watch for an update on the wildfires west of the Fraser River, as we are interviewing the information officer covering those.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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