A new wildfire in British Columbia, in the hills on the southeast side of Skaha Lake, east of Okanagan Falls, is one of more than 300 currently burning across B.C., including 35 of them sparked since Saturday. Two-thirds were started by lightning.
According to CBC Canada, the B.C. Wildfire Service says that 25 of the fires are ranked as especially threatening or highly visible – including the Okanagan fire, which has already charred over 5 square kilometers (1.236 acres).
While wildfire risk across the province is ranked as high or extreme, Environment Canada has issued another round of heat warnings for parts of the central and southern Interior, including the region where crews are still battling the 88-square-kilometer fire that leveled the community of Lytton.
Heat warnings issued Sunday by the weather office call for above-seasonal daytime temperatures of 33 C to 38 C, (91 F to 100 F) and only moderately cooler conditions overnight.
“Heat warnings are issued when very high temperature or humidity conditions are expected to pose an elevated risk of heat illnesses, such as heat stroke or heat exhaustion,” the Environment Canada warning said.
Warning issued over the use of drones and boats
Over the weekend, firefighters had to ground crews at two wildfires — the Kimbol Lake wildfire near Nakusp on Saturday and the Becker Lake wildfire near Vernon the same day because of people flying drones in the area.
“If a drone collides with firefighting aircraft, the consequences could be deadly,” the Wildfire Service said Saturday on Twitter.
The provincial government toughened up its law regarding flying drones near wildfires in 2016. Anyone caught flying one near a wildfire could be fined up to $100,000, be jailed for up to a year, or both.
The restricted airspace includes a radius of five nautical miles around the fire and an altitude of 3,000 feet above ground level.
Boaters are also causing problems that could end in a disaster when they are on lakes being used by air tankers picking up water to fight the fires.
This happened on Sunday. Crews were affected by boaters on Kalamalka Lake near the Becker Lake wildfire close to Vernon. Boaters impacted the work of air tankers picking up water on the north end of the lake.
“This is dangerous both to people on the boat and to our personnel, and interferes with critical firefighting operations,” the wildfire service said on Twitter.
