I have been following the BC fires and hope for the best for everyone there. Being in Alaska, I have driven through those areas many times in the past 45 years so I have a feeling for how big this is. Be safe and I wish I could send you the rain we have been getting all summer in Juneau. It has rained more days than not since the snow melted.
Guys are gearing up to go. Seen a lot of equipment on the move and logging trucks with water tanks strapped onto the frames.
They're keeping control last couple days on some of the fires, weather has been cooperating with lack of wind, the Gustafson fire closest to me is now 15% contained, still around 5000ha. They are doing controlled burns here to protect the town and mills and in 150 Mile House. Slight rain is expected next week. I sure hope so! They had to evacuate lots of people down the logging roads where my property is, through about 70km of rough roads, as the hwy is closed due to the fire, had to put calcium chloride down, the dust was horrendous, they did a great job getting people out. I feel less stress knowing the majority of people are out of this area (including my Mom and Brother which both live closer to 100 Mile), if I need to go (I hope it won't come to that) there won't be much trouble.
I just went out to Little Fort. Thuya Lake fire seems to be slowly drifting south way up above highway 5. Not much action there or on the Dunn Lake fires. Saw one or 2 trees flare up but nothing more than that. Definitely not as exciting as escaping The Mac last spring. I hope it doesn't get that hairy out here.
I am curious to see how things are going. Last summer we decided to take a detour at Williams Lake and drive to Bella Coola. The only time I had been there was years ago and it was by ferry. Next week we leave Juneau by ferry to Prince Rupert. The next day we ferry to Bella Bella and overnight. The next day is the small ferry to Bella Coola to overnight. From there we are uncertain about our route to the lower-48, but that might change depending on what the fire is doing. Last year we took in the truck show at Cache Creek then headed east through Ashcroft to Merritt then Princeton to Hope. It will be interesting to see what has changed. We have a guest going home so we plan to take the Frasier Valley and go the long way on the Alaska Hwy to Whitehorse to show off some scenery. We end up in Skagway to take the ferry home. If I see anything good I will get photos and post when we return.
My area is under evacuation alert as of this afternoon, same with south of Clearwater, these winds are not good... Smoke is blocking the sun pretty, eerie out..
Yep and I'm about ready to tear a strip off someone. Clearwater's mayor signed the alert notice at 1 o'clock this afternoon. As of 4 o'clock it hadn't even been posted to any official websites that we were told to rely on for the proper information (ie District of Clearwater, TNRD, etc). But it was all over Facebook despite the constant warnings we've been told to not to trust anything posted to social media without fact checking first. I don't even have Facebook and the only reason I knew about the alert was that a volunteer delivered an official notice to our door because they were tasked with locating all the senior citizens and couldn't find my grandpa. This was 2 hours after the alert was issued.
The TNRD website has FA posted for updates since the 11th. Just checked the District of Clearwater website and they've finally updated it. As of 2:45pm it has been expanded to the entire city.
I've been watching the regional district sites, BC wildfires, drive BC and listing to CBC radio, sat internet and VoIP phone is my only communication. just moved onto this quarter section of raw land in October, I'm living in a 37ft fifth wheel while we build so at least I can gather the dogs and chickens, pin on and go.
Dunn Lake fire sure travelled in the last 24 hours. Is was about 5 km from the golf course when I checked it almost 2 hours ago. Its still up on the mountain but if it gets down into the valley by the highway the wind will blow it to Clearwater pretty quick I think.
Be safe guys!
Screenshot this just now. For those of you who haven't been checking this map: Flame symbol = Fire of Note (basically means the fire is likely to threaten property) Red dot = New fire (less than 24 hrs old, not a fire of note) Yellow dot = More than 24 hours old, not a fire of note
Yikes. We don't have to deal with anything of that magnitude around here. Pretty serious ****!
This is just like 2003. That was the last time BC got hit by fires this bad and I recall that was the last time they declared a state of emergency as well.
The Gustafson fire is holding so far at 5000ha so it's not much of a threat compared to the Ashcroft fire, which is huge 43000+ha and out of control, still on the west side of hwy 97 but threatening to jump over, heading north at a pretty good clip (Grass and brush). I believe that's why my area is on alert. South Clearwater is on evac order as of last night. I moved my horse down to Barriere rodeo grounds yesterday, one less thing to worry about.. All the neighbors here are going to go in a convoy if need be, we have a property in Barriere to camp out on, pretty safe there as it was burned out in the 2003 fire. Pretty intense situation...
All of Clearwater has been on alert since yesterday evening. The wind has died down today and the Dunn Lake fire is still on the opposite side of the river.
Weather calmed down overnight, things are looking a little better today up here. The Ashcroft fire is now almost 53000ha, they put out a perimeter map and it is on both sides of hwy 97, mostly on the east side, I must have read some false info? Lots of rumors going on but it's not like we can just go take a gander at it!
I hope that the predicted rain for Thursday arrives and eases the situation. Cam
Got a bit of rain Thu and a sprinkle today, definitely eased the situation! A few small fires sparked up from lighting but nothing serious. They are working on removing the evac order for 100mile but will take a while yet I'm sure. Got a job to do on Sunday, the rancher got parts from Kamloops, I've also done some plumbing in the local corner store so at least I've had some work through all this!
Our fire in Princeton is 90% contained , they are moving in faller bunchers to cut snags beside highway 5 so the road can get opened soon. 2 weeks #5 has been closed now.
Apparently the Thompson region got a good rainstorm on Thursday. I went back to Alberta but looking online it seems like none of the 3 fires in the Little Fort and Clearwater areas have seem to have had any kind of growth in the last couple days.
Did some of the rain that we got on the island make it out your way?
None of your rain made it to Princeton but I seen where Williams Lake got a good shot of rain. Our fire was started by Industry, so none of the loggers want to go back to work. Windy and 29 here now Flag straight out.
Update on the fire situation in my area. The Gustafson (100 Mile) fire is under control, still burning in the center but looking good. The fire that started in Ashcroft now called the elephant hill fire is still out of control and now 85000ha (210000acres) in size, it jumped the Bonaparte river and is heading north east through thick forest. The wildfire crew set a "controlled burn" which got out of hand and crossed Hwy 97 back to the West side threatening more homes. My area came off evacuation alert, Clinton, Green Lake and Watch Lake are all under evacuation order, the whole south side of Hwy 24 from Lone Butte to Lac Des Roches is under evacuation alert. The local loggers want in to clearcut a fire gaurd ahead of the north east front then irrigate the other side of the gaurd from the lakes. So far they haven't got the go ahead. We've got wildfire fighters from all over the world on this fire, locals are irritated that they won't let our loggers assist, they know this forest better than anyone.
Our loggers here may not go back to work till Sept. a contractors meeting is on today. A friend bought 2 new logging trucks hauled 8 loads with one and the other 5 loads . times are tough here now. With all the smoke here if a new fire started how long will it take before they notice it????? Long weekend coming up and lot of city puffs in the bush ATV's etc.
Just call in the boats lol.
Came across this site, interesting to see more up to date mapping of the fires. https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/afm/data/activefiremaps/bce2017218_0700.jpg
Well the winds changed again, cold front blowing in, bad situation in the South Cariboo.. The elephant hill fire has grown 1000s of hectares in the last couple days, over 121000 last time they mapped it, lost a couple dozers on a gaurd in the Bonaparte today, then lighting came through and sparked up more fires this afternoon, some close to me produced more evac orders. Listening to the police scanner, and it's not sounding good... They are bringing in more military for assistance. Here's 5pm today in Bridge Lake/Lone Butte area.
Crap. That really sucks. Apparently the Thompson area got about 10-15 minutes of torrential downpour last night. I passed a couple military convoys heading to BC last week. Had no idea those 8 wheel drive armoured things could haul ass at 105 km/h down the highway.
We got some rain too, hopefully will slow the spread of the fires, pretty nasty air quality this am. Yeah those amphibious LAV III are quite the thing, 450hp 20000+ kgs, must have quite the braking system!
Was in Kamloops for the weekend not bad yesterday. blue sky with sun this morning. I hear that is smoking over again tonight
It was bloody hot in Kamloops on Friday. Truck said 38C at around 5pm. I'm sure it was in the 40's earlier that day. At least the North Thompson got a 6 hour rainstorm this afternoon. Hopefully you folks out in 100 Mile and Quesnel areas got some too.
Got back to Alaska on Thursday night. Things were real smoky south of Prince George. We took Hwy 5 to Little Fort then 24 to 100 Mile House. Kamloops was so bad, I got turned around because I could not see the hilltops to get my bearings straight. 97 was still closed going south and the Mountie said Clinton was evacuated the day before. What a mess.
Smoke wasn't too bad until I hit Valemount this morning. Everything looked pretty soaked there when I went through so hopefully they got a good dump of rain yesterday too.
We got some good rain yesterday, pretty wet where I'm at, they have control of the new fires close to me, been dumping water out of Canim Lake with choppers steady. I was down in Bridge Lake again today helping ranchers prepare for the worst, even managed to sneak in and out of evac areas to help them... The elephant hill fire was about 12km from where I was, it had a bit of a break from the wind but the rain didn't seem to do much, I know a guy incharge of one of the front lines headed towards hwy 24, it's not looking good from his view. Just have to wait and see... Former Wrench we probably passed ways that day, I was going here and there all day. Did you happen to stop at the Interlakes Market halfway up 24? My ol' lady works there.
I was in the Kamloops area all last week, for vacation if you can believe it. I was visiting my brother, who works in the aircraft/helicopter industry and he was consistently fielding calls for his helicopters - but he's got none left to send out, or move about. Quite a need for them. We headed back to the Peace River region on Sunday, and it just poured for the first 6 hours of the drive. It had been very smoky the whole time there, and for the Ribfest we went too, but after some rain Saturday night, it was nice and clear. It ruined our last night of camping, but that's not anything to complain about. It was needed in a bad way.
How was Ribfest? I was going to go to that and Hot Nite in the City but ended up staying in Clearwater that night (lucky me lol).
We went past the market about 5PM. Looked like they were real busy.
We went up for Rib Feast and car show I think the Rib feast is over rated, not cheap for a few ribs that you get for $17.00 were not really hot. car show was good Entertainment was excellent.
I went 2 years ago and the ribs we got were absolutely amazing. Sad to hear they aren't so good anymore.
There were 6 of us so we all had a sample and 2 in our group have been going for 4 years . No one had what they would call the best some were cool and I expected them to be heat hot. Beer was great.
Family enjoyed it. I've gone to a few Ribfests, but they've been in the GTA area, and were absolutely packed - so I never got in line for Ribs. Just took the kids for the fun stuff. Kamloops was different, we got there Friday just after it opened. We were able to walk right up, get all the samples we wanted, and pick our ribs. Wife and I enjoyed the ribs, kids enjoyed the fun stuff. It was a good, but very hot, day.
This was just outside of Nelson about a week ago. Not good to have a fire with that sort of behaviour at 9:00 PM.