Fire crews are still mopping up a wildfire believed to have been person caused near Gof Course Road in Anglemont.
The fire was reported late in the afternoon on June 10. Two rappel crews and two response officers or supervisory personnel responded.
Melissa Klassen, fire information officer, says the fire grew to half a hectare in size, and was burning in standing timber and showing rank two and three behaviour.
“With rank two, you see open flame on the ground surface and becoming organized,” says Klassen. “Three starts climbing trees and candling.”
On the scene until late in the evening, three crews were back early the following morning, working in from established guards on the perimeter to cool things down.
On June 15, a rap attack crew returned to the fire scene, and Klassen said it’s no longer a concern.
While there have been no other fires of note in the Salmon Arm Zone, as of June 17, the wildfire danger rating was at high in Chase and Sicamous, and extreme in Salmon Arm, Enderby and in the North Shuswap as well.
Looking ahead, Klassen says some precipitation is expected over the next 10 days, which would help with the fire danger rating. If that doesn’t happen, she suggested a campfire ban may go into effect before July.
“Right now, all across the fire centre, (the rating) is moderate to high, but it’s looking more overwhelmingly high and we’re having more pockets of extreme pop up, and if we don’t receive any precipitation, we’re going to see that increase substantially in the next week,” said Klassen. “If that trend continues, if we don’t see any kid of cooling patterns over the next, there could be the potential for a possible campfire ban before July.”
Temperatures are expected to drop to 23 C on Saturday, but rise to 28 C on Sunday.
An open fire ban is currently in place in the Kamloops Fire Centre.