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Fire near Mt Arrowsmith ‘95% contained’: Coastal Fire Centre

Fire determined to be human caused, spokesperson says
web1_ArrowsmithFire-25june17
The forest fire burning on Cameron Main approximately 15 kms southeast of Port Alberni is 95 percent contained, according to the Coastal Fire Centre. WENDY DALMAN FACEBOOK PHOTO

A fire on Cameron Main near Mt. Arrowsmith is 95 percent contained, says Marg Drysdale, fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre.

“They did a track on it and it’s 15 hectares in size,” she said. “Today (Monday) they will not have any aircraft on that site, it will be a unit crew so there will be 20 firefighters there.”

The fire is on a slope, and that’s always challenging, she said.

The fire was “human caused”, Drysdale said, but is still under investigation. She said she couldn’t comment on the slash piles that can be seen in the vicinity of the fire.

The fire began Saturday afternoon 15 kilometres southeast of Port Alberni and was initially reported as 20 hectares in size.

“(Saturday) we had four fire fighting personnel attacking the fire in addition to air support.” That air support, fire information officer Ryan Turcot said, included four air tankers and one helicopter.

Forest fire burns southeast of Port Alberni

The Martin Mars waterbomber is still not on the water at Sproat Lake, so was not one of the air tankers. Some of them scrambled from the Provincial Airtanker Centre in Kamloops, according to tweets on twitter.com. The Cameron Main fire was one of 112 burning around B.C. as of Sunday, June 25 according to BC Wildfire Service.

The sky over the Alberni Valley on Saturday was clear but temperatures between 4–5 p.m. were between 32 and 33 degrees Celsius, according to The Weather Network.

The temperature was in the 30s on Sunday too, which made fighting the fire on the ground a challenge for firefighters, Drysdale said.

Port Alberni breaks temperature record

“That’s hard on the firefighters…they need to stay hydrated. Today (Monday) it is much cooler so it’s easier for them to work on the ground in these kinds of conditions. They’ll make very good progress on this fire today, just because of the better conditions.”

The fire had been listed on Sunday as “out of control”, and Drysdale pointed out that BC Wildfire Services has changed the way they officially describe fires, especially on their website. There are now four categories: out of control, being held, under control and out.

“This fire would be considered ‘being held’,” she explained, because it is now contained on all sides.

“When (the public) initially sees fires on the map and they see ‘out of control’, that means no containment lines or not a solid containment line around the fire.

“It is a scientific term.”

BC Wildfire Services is changing the way they categorize fires to keep the language the same as other provinces. “If they align the terminology then everyone’s on the same playbook,” she said.

There is an explanation on the new terminology on the website bcwildfire.ca.

editor@albernivalleynews.com



Susie Quinn

About the Author: Susie Quinn

A journalist since 1987, I proudly serve as the Alberni Valley News editor.
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