The B.C. Wildfire Service website is reporting a small 0.01 hectare fire on Green Mountain, southeast of Quesnel, discovered on Sunday June 3.
The website says the suspected cause of the fire is lightning; however, Jessica Mack, the fire information officer with the Cariboo Fire Centre, says they’ve determined the fire to be an overwintering fire, defined as a hotspot from last summer’s wildfire.
“An overwintering fire can occur when a wildfire that burned deep underground last year has continued to smoulder all winter long,” she says.
A total of four resources responded to the incident and Mack says that at this time it is 100 per cent contained.
Green Mountain burned in 2017, with the fire believed to have been caused by lightning. Highway 97 South was closed for part of the summer. By July 7 2017, 140 fires had started throughout B.C., with the majority in the central interior.