Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

Wildfire Response

Province-wide firefighters marshal in Kamloops to battle local blazes

Jul 19, 2021 | 3:58 PM

KAMLOOPS — As scores of fires continue to burn across the Interior region, firefighters from all over the province have set up camp at Parkcrest school site in Kamloops.

“The camp will house 125 firefighters approximately, from the Sparks Lake wildfire, and then additional firefighters who are working on the Embleton Mountain wildfire,” said Hannah Swift, fire information officer for the BC Wildfire Service.

The Sparks Lake wildfire is the biggest in the province at more than 45,000 hectares, but in the past few days, fire growth has stalled.

The Embleton Mountain fire grew a bit, but its growth was intentional.

1000 Ways to Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: Moons

Dec 10, 2024

Question of the Week

Should Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson apologize or resign after it was found he breached a section of council's code of conduct for allowing false or misleading information to be communicated?

Dec 09, 2024

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Donald has it wrong - again

Dec 08, 2024

“The fire is doing what we want it to. And that is back down that area of the fire where we can’t safely put our crews to work. What we have to do is bring the fire down to us, where we can then effectively actually put it out by applying water directly to it,” Swift explained to CFJC Today.

The firefighters will camp at Parkcrest indefinitely because, with lots of heat and no rain in the weather forecast, there’s no telling when local fires will calm down.

“Sizing for the Tremont Creek wildfire right now is still estimated at 5.000 hectares,” said Nicole Bonnett, one of the fire information officers assigned to the Tremont Creek fire and others nearby.

“We’ve had crews and heavy equipment back out onto the line and then we’ve had crews and heavy equipment working into the night as well, in conjunction with the structural protection and Ashcroft Fire Department overnight, tourism patrols just to keep an eye on the communities and the properties that are in close proximity to the fire perimeter,” Bonnett said.

Although these fires remain active, the community can rest assured knowing the right people for the job are in town.

“Our firefighters work for 14 days straight and then they have some time off to recover, so we will be rotating crews through,” Swift continued.

And they will be in a comfortable camp on the North Shore.

“We have single-person tents set up. The firefighters do have tents assigned to them. They bring them when they get deployed outside of their local region. And then we have trailers and larger ranger tents for eating facilities, kitchen facilities and offices and that sort of thing,” she added.