Image Credit: CFJC Today/ Kent Simmonds

By Adel Ahmed

WILDFIRE SEASON 2023

CSRD to inform North Shuswap residents about property status

Aug 28, 2023 | 5:21 PM

KAMLOOPS — On Monday (August 28) the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) began a devastating process – calling every owner that had their property damaged by the Bush Creek East wildfire. The blaze is responsible for destroying at least 131 structures and damaging 37 others.

“The emergency operations team will be reaching out to the property owners in the North Shuswap who have had losses in their structures, we’re gathering the information and will start that process today,” Emergency Operations Director for the CSRD John Maclean said in a virtual briefing.

The CSRD say the process will span over the next couple of days. Although fire activity settled down midway through last week, the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) says hot temperatures over the weekend has increased it once again.

“No significant wind during that time which is great news for us but even yesterday out on the fire you could start to see a little bit more smoke coming out of the interior of the fire,” BCWS Information Officer Mike McCulley told CFJC Today. “A few more trees popping up and burning off but really no big growth in a little while.”

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Despite temperatures reaching the mid 30’s to start the week, precipitation in the forecast in the latter half of the week is something McCulley hopes will decrease the fire activity.

“Likely through today and tomorrow will be the higher level of fire activity that we’ve seen in about a week,” McCulley said. “We’re hoping this brief wind event will be followed up by some precipitation and that will allow our crews to continue to get a handle on this fire.”

McCulley adds with shorter days ahead, taking care of the fire will become easier for wildfire crews to deal with.

“In the evenings we get a little more recovery and when you see us move back to more seasonal temperatures next week, we’re hopeful to see greater recoveries at night which means more humidity, quieter fire behaviour and then those sort of fire codes that we talk about like our fine fuel moisture code. It should stay a little bit lower based on that recovery we get at night.”

As of August 28, the Bush Creek East Wildfire is at 43,067 hectares.