Some structures lost at resort due to Fraser Canyon fires

“That fire grew substantially yesterday due to extremely strong winds, very steep terrain, receptive fuels and very dry conditions,” she added.

One resident in the region says he has lost some structures to the flames.

For years, Blue Lake Resort, north of Boothroyd, has been a summer destination in the Fraser Canyon. Now, parts of it are gone.

“I had a webcam set up at the office,” Shayne Findlay from the resort, said. “I had a backup generator, so I was able to watch my buildings burn down.”

Findlay said that flames damaged multiple structures at the resort and the financial loss is significant.

“It’s done. We’re done. We lost too much,” he said. “We’re packing it in for the summer, and we’ll have to see what we can look like next year.”

The Brunswick Creek fire – on the west bank of the Fraser River – is approximately 2,600 hectares in size.

“We have a couple of more challenging days ahead,” Caranci said. “We don’t see any rain in the short-term forecast and we are going to continue to see those elevated winds at least for the next couple of days, with no rain expected in that short-term forecast.

“So we are likely to continue to see that elevated fire behaviour and also those smoky conditions; the smoke inversions are going to be coming and going throughout the day, so there may be smoke advisories continuing in the area.”

Caranci said that the fire behaviour on the Ainslie Creek fire is so aggressive that the fire did spot ahead of itself and sparked at least one blaze in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

“When a fire is burning that aggressively and at that rank, it can throw burning embers a fair distance ahead of itself, kilometres and kilometres ahead of itself,” she explained. “And that was the type of behaviour we were seeing yesterday, which is a good indication of how severe that fire behaviour and activity was.”

Caranci said they are not sure when they can expect a break in conditions.

She said the Fraser Canyon contains steep terrain, with some of it being inoperable for ground crews, which creates challenging conditions for firefighters.

There are 12 helicopters in the region bucketing areas of heat and two night-vision-equipped helicopters working overnight to maintain 24-hour operations.

Caranci said there are also approximately 150 firefighters, 60 structure protection personnel, 21 pieces of heavy equipment and one incident management team working alongside the helicopters.

The Brunswick Creek fire has also forced the closure of Highway 1 between Boston Bar Station Road and Ainslie Road North.

The closure coincides with an evacuation alert from the Fraser Valley Regional District covering 48 properties north of Boston Bar, along both sides of the Fraser River.

B.C.’s Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness says about 150 properties are now under evacuation order and about 255 properties are under evacuation alert.

Evacuation orders for the fire include three under the jurisdiction of the Fraser Valley Regional District: one for the Boothroyd Indian Band, another for Boston Bar First Nation and a third for Canyon Alpine.

An evacuation alert is also in place for Boston Bar itself, while the Thompson-Nicola Regional District has also issued an evacuation alert of its own.

“This is a very dynamic situation and an emerging situation,” Caranci said.

“We are experiencing a time of very elevated fire behaviour and activity. We want to ask all people, especially people driving through the area: we do have closures happening on Highway 1.

“Please check Drive BC before you plan to come through this area. Even if you are able to drive through this area, please don’t stop on the side of the road. We have to keep the road open and the highway open for our crews to work and keep the area safe for our crews and responders.”

An orange air quality warning has been issued for the South Thompson region due to wildfire smoke in the region.

A yellow air quality warning has been issued for the Fraser Canyon south, including Lytton and the Fraser Canyon north, including Lillooet. A yellow air quality warning is also in effect for the Nicola region.

–with files from The Canadian Press and CFJC Today

by Amy Judd/Global BC

Some structures lost at resort due to Fraser Canyon fires

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