Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BC WILDFIRE SERVICE

Cool, wet weather should help crews battling Adams Lake Complex fires

Aug 10, 2023 | 4:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — During Thursday’s (August 10) Provincial Update on Drought, Wildfires and the upcoming heat event, Cliff Chapman, Director of Operations for the BC Wildfire Service gave an update on how the cooler weather across the southern part of the province has affected the wildfire situation in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

Speaking to conditions throughout BC, Chapman explained that following rain in central and northern BC last week, precipitation shifted to parts of the Kamloops Fire Centre and the South East Fire Centre over the past two days. He says that precipitation will give crews a window to get ahead of the three fires in the Adams Lake Complex.

“We did see measurable rainfall within the Adams Complex – all three of the fires within the Adams [Lake] Complex received rain,” Chapman explained. “It really allows us, [over] the next 48 to 72 hours just ahead of this heatwave setting up, it allows us to have successful suppression efforts from the ground and in the air.”

The cool, wet conditions have aided those suppression efforts, as the skies around southern BC aren’t as smoky. That helps ensure the safety of crews taking to the skies to fight these fires. That’s important as the next few days will be critical for firefighters to get a handle on these fires as the heat wave approaches.

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“So now we’ve got – yesterday, today, tomorrow and probably into the weekend ahead of this heat to really have an impact on the ground,” Chapman says. “We know earlier this week the fire did move closer to some residences in Adams Lake. Thankfully, we still have not had any structure loss on those fires. We have structure protection in place, we have ground resources in place. The weather has given us a really strong chance to try and steer that fire away from the residences and ideally, get contained.”