Small part of B.C.’s Burns Bog contained, but most will regenerate: Society

Jul 4, 2016 | 1:52 PM

DELTA, B.C. — About 90 per cent of a peat bog south of Vancouver is expected to regenerate in the coming years, but it could take a century before the entire area recovers from a fire tearing through it on Monday, says the head of a conservation society.

Eliza Olson, founder of the Burns Bog Conservation Society, said the 30-square-kilometre nature reserve in Delta is believed to be the largest undeveloped urban wilderness area in North America.

“That’s one of the beauties of having Burns Bog here in the water table,” she said in an interview Monday.

“Because it’s at the mouth of the Fraser River, it’s an estuary-raised bog. You normally don’t find a raised bog this far south.”

A fire reported at Burns Bog on Sunday was about 10 per cent contained Monday morning, with crews hoping to fully contain the flames by the end of the day.

Chief Dan Copeland of the Delta Fire Department said the blaze was between 50 and 70 hectares in size, and 90 firefighters from a number of jurisdictions were battling the fire.

Copeland said one firefighter was treated in hospital after suffering an injury caused by a medical condition, but he declined to give further details.

Burns Bog is one of North America’s largest peat bogs and flames can sink under the dry peat, where they burn out of sight.

“That is the biggest challenge here,” Copeland said of the fire, which was under investigation. “We’re hoping we can get a lot of the spots before it goes deep into the peat.”

He told a news conference that aircraft, including water bombers, were on standby while helicopters helped fight the blaze. Several hot spots were put out overnight, he said.

Delta police have said it could take at least a week to extinguish the fire.

Highway 17, a major thoroughfare that cuts through Delta, was expected to remain closed from Highway 99 to the Highway 91 connector for the rest of Monday. Some businesses have been evacuated.

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said the fire is a “major emergency,” and the community was under provincial emergency status. Crews had to scramble as it was a long weekend, she said.

“But everybody’s on hand. Everybody mustered. The people from the province, bless their hearts, they were here as fast as they could get here.” 

Forty provincial firefighters, 20 from Delta and 20 from Metro Vancouver, were fighting the blaze.

Naomi Yamamoto, B.C.’s minister of state for emergency preparedness, and Forests Minister Steve Thomson both called and “pledged everything they had,” Jackson said.

She said Metro Vancouver was monitoring air quality as smoke had drifted into Vancouver, but conditions had improved since Sunday and it had not issued a general advisory.

She said Delta would consult with Metro Vancouver’s Burns Bog scientific advisory panel for guidance in the recovery of the 30-square-kilometre nature reserve.

Jackson was also mayor in 2005, when a blaze in Burns Bog grew to more than two square kilometres and took more than a week to put out.

“The last big fire, at this stage, was I think a lot bigger than this one,” she said Monday. “We got this one fast, I think.”

Olson said the bog’s acidic, peat-forming ecosystem includes rare plants, such as cloudberries, called baked apples in Newfoundland, and velvet-leafed blueberries, along with two species of dragon flies among its diverse inspect species.

About 200 hectares of the bog remain private land that could be developed because it’s not protected under a conservation plan set up by the municipal, provincial and federal governments, she said.

Most of Burns Bog is closed off to the public due to safety and conservation concerns, but about 60 hectares of an area called the Delta Nature Reserve is open and is often a site for school field trips.

— By Camille Bains and Laura Kane in Vancouver