Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

Wildfire crews set up at Parkcrest School in Kamloops as fires burn across the region

Jul 16, 2021 | 4:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — Wildfire crews are setting up camp at Parkcrest School in Kamloops as fires continue to burn across the region.

However, in the past 24 hours, the spread of local fires may have calmed down a bit.

One wildfire of most concern to Kamloops residents is the Cole Hill fire burning near Jacko Lake.

“The BC Wildfire Service responded to a wildfire approximately 6 kilometres outside of Kamloops just south. It’s called the Cole Hill Wildfire, we responded yesterday in conjunction with the Kamloops wildfire rescue they were helping assist on this fire, we had ten personnel respond with one helicopter, today it is classified as being held and we have four personnel that will be on site,” BC Wildfire Services fire information officer, Taylor MacDonald told CFJC.

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Another fire of note in the Kamloops fire centre is the Durand Lake wildfire; 28 kilometres southwest of Kamloops.

“It is estimated to be about 289 hectares in size and is still classified as ‘out of control.’ There isn’t too much of an update that is different from the last few days on this one,” MacDonald said.

Although the air quality has been unfavourable in Kamloops, the B.C. Wildfire Service is grateful for the smoke. It filters the sun which can help slow down the spread of the fire.

“The big update for the Embleton Mountain is along the northeastern flank of the fire, the fire did successfully back down to the lower Heffley-Louis Creek Road. Mainly it was just rank one and rank two, kind of low-fire intensity and it brought the fire down to where crews had been working, and that’s actually what we wanted to happen,” explained fire information officer, Shannon Street.

The Sparks Lake fire, which is the biggest active fire in the province right now, also didn’t see much growth — it went up 1000 hectares bringing the size to 45,166 hectares.

“With the weather that we have had over the last few days and the smoke in the area, it has kind of dampened some of that fire behaviour,” she continued.

Although the Sparks Lake fire didn’t drastically grow, another the Young Lake fire emerged nearby which sits at 846 hectares.

“Just because of the resources in the province, we don’t have crews working on that fire. We have a wildfire officer that takes a flight up in that area and takes a look at it,” Street added.