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Hot dry weather likely to push fire risk to extreme.

Careful watch being kept on a local wildfire
whistler_fire

The fire risk in Sea to Sky country was raised to extreme this week as hot dry weather continues for the region.

But, said provincial fire officer Starr Munro, there are no immediate plans to announce a backcountry ban like the one put in place here late last summer.

"At this point in time our resources aren’t being stretched to the point on the coast where we need to do that but it is always up for consideration," she said.

"We sit down multiple times a week and reevaluate burning bans and restrictions.

"The potential exists but it is not something we enjoy doing because it causes hassles for so many people."

Meanwhile, at press time firefighters were still standing guard over a wildfire near the resort.

The three-hectare blaze seemed to be under control this week but municipal leaders were keeping a close eye on the situation.

"Everybody is concerned in southern British Columbia," said Whistler Mayor Hugh O’Reilly.

The situation in the northern reaches of the Sea to Sky corridor is also complicated by the huge tracks of forest destroyed by the Mountain Pine Beetle. Its just tinder waiting to go up in flames said O’Reilly.

"This is an ongoing problem," he said. "There is no quick fix and the consultants have all told us this and so this is a problem we will face over many, many years."

The resort is working hard to educate locals and visitors alike to fire dangers such as smoking on trails or using mechanized equipment, such as ATV’s or motorcycles, in the backcountry.

O’Reilly said the resort is ready to respond and even held a mock fire emergency exercise last month.

"It is top of mind for every elected official," he said.

"Coordination, communication, preparedness are all under discussion but, you know, you can’t make it go away.

"We are just praying a little bit for some good luck too so that we don’t see what happened in Kelowna last summer happen here."

Last August wildfires near the Okanagan city forced thousands from their homes and razed more than 300 homes.

The Whistler fire on the south side of Wedge Mountain, about five kilometres from the backside of Blackcomb Mountain was first noticed last Sunday.

The smoke from the blaze even affected skiers and snowboarders taking part in camps on Blackcomb glacier.

Air tankers dropped water on the fire and Blackcomb Helicopters dropped buckets of water on the blaze to help contain it. Six fire fighters remained at the site of the fire at press time.

According to Munro, lightning from earlier in the month, around July 6, likely started the now active fire.

"What we are seeing is lightning holding over from almost a month ago," she said.

"It just smolders away then comes up to the surface when the conditions are right."

On average, lightning causes about 50 per cent of all forest fires in B.C. And about 90 per cent of these are detected and mapped by the Forest Service through the Canadian Lightning Detection Network, provided by Environment Canada.

It consists of a network of lightning locators that provide blanket coverage of the province.

Forest Service personnel can create maps that show the location, day, and time for any lightning strike, then they can check lightning hot spots for new wildfires. Information from this system is also used by fire managers to route and schedule air patrols and to determine standby and resource allocation.

Lightning can strike almost anywhere, even as far as 15 kilometres away from a storm cell, so it may not be affected by rain. Dry lightning can also occur under the storm cell when the base of the cloud is so high that the rain evaporates before reaching the ground. Dry lightning is a potent ignition source because if the fuels are dry there will not be enough moisture to interfere with ignition or the spreading of a fire.

Whistler Mountain also saw a small fire under the Garbanzo chair last weekend after a careless smoker tossed away a cigarette butt.

"That was put out very quickly," said Arthur DeJong, mountain planning and environmental resource manager.

"It continues to concern us that with all the fire events in the province, and in fact globally, that people still do not understand the association with their cigarette butt and a potential fire."

The mountain can respond very quickly to these emergencies, said DeJong, as personnel have two-way radios and access routes are clear to all the lift lines.

Over 200 staff are also trained in basic fire suppression and every truck on the mountain carries fire-fighting equipment. Snowmaking equipment is also on standby and can shoot over 35 million gallons of water if needed.

"If a fire is ignited by our operation we are expected to contain and eliminate it," said DeJong.

But if needed provincial and even local firefighters can be called in. And if other areas of the community need help from Whistler-Blackcomb, staff members are ready to respond said DeJong.

"The greatest chance for natural catastrophe in this valley is wildfire," he said

"There is always a little nervousness in the tummy right now looking at the current state."

Whistler Fire Chief Bruce Hall said the community must be vigilant and follow fire restrictions.

"Our biggest message to people is no smoking, no campfires. Let’s not give fire a source out in the bush anywhere in the valley," said Hall.

"Beware out there."

Already this summer forest fires have consumed more than 10 times as much land as at this time during last year’s devastating fire season.

As of Wednesday fire officials were tracking 381 fires which have laid waste to 151, 267 hectares, most of this in the north west region of the province.

At the same time last year only 156 fires were burning on 11,297 hectares.

The province’s largest forest fire is burning near Turner Lake and Lonesome Lake, near Tweedsmuir South Park, about 400 kilometres west of Williams Lake.

The fire is so massive that a plume of ash and smoke towers thousands of metres into the air above it. Smoke has drifted hundreds of kilometres to the south as well, creating haze in Whistler and the Lower Mainland.

Since April the province has had 1,467 fires and has spent $73.4 million – 23.4 million over budget – fighting them.