A storm that tracked north of Salmon Arm towards Seymour Arm Tuesday evening between 7 and 9 delivered about 40 lightning strikes, igniting seven new fires in the Salmon Arm Fire Zone.
All were spot-sized and remote early Tuesday afternoon, with only one in a cluster of four wildfires in the vicinity of Seymour River requiring action at press time Wednesday.
A helitanker and a three-person rapattack crew were dispatched to the fire that, while growing, remained spot sized.
Northeast of Seymour Arm, the fire was showing some evidence of rank-three fire behaviour just before 2 p.m., with flame moving up into the trees, said fire information officer Melissa Klassen from the Kamloops Fire Centre.
By 3:45 p.m., the area was experiencing heavy rain, briefly delaying the crew’s arrival.
Lightning also ignited spot fires in remote areas of the Salmon Arm Fire Zone, including one near Owl Head, another one about 12 kilometres on the Kingfisher Forest Service Road and a third at Crazy Creek near Mabel Lake.
A suspected lightning holdover popped up Monday morning near Woods Landing about 15 kilometres south of Seymour Arm.
Klassen said the holdover fire was likely from a storm that moved through the area two weeks ago.
It grew to some 50 by 20 metres in size and was mostly rank 1, which is a smouldering ground fire producing a bit of smoke.
Klassen says there was some rank 2 action (a bit of open flame) where the fire was burning in heavy timber. Four firefighters were dispatched to fight the fire, which was fully contained as of Monday morning and is now out and in patrol stage.
Environment Canada’s forecast for midweek included showers, much-needed precipitation accompanied by the threat of more lightning.