Lightning sparks 50 new wildfires across B.C. – Okanagan | 24CA News
Fifty new wildfires have been sparked on Friday by a thunderstorm that rolled throughout elements of the province.
According to the BC Wildfire Service, there have been greater than 7,000 lightning strikes yesterday.
“We saw 67 new starts and 50 of them were caused by lightning,” provincial hearth data officer Sarah Budd advised Global News on Saturday.
“So right now, the bulk of our fires are coming in because of lightning.”
In the Kamloops Fire Centre, lightning was the reason for the Horseshoe Lake wildfire close to Spallumcheen.
That hearth is listed as nonetheless being uncontrolled, although its dimension of three.2 hectares hasn’t modified since Friday night time.
BC Wildfire mentioned the native hearth division additionally responded to the blaze, which noticed air assist drop hearth retardant on it shortly after it was found on Friday afternoon.
“Today, six BC Wildfire crew members have responded to the incident, along with one water tender and one helicopter,” mentioned Kamloops Fire Centre data officer Taylor Shantz.
“They are making good progress on containment on that one.”
In the Similkameen Valley, two spot-sized fires north of Tulameen that have been rapidly contained have been additionally began by lightning.
“The last 24 hours, the Kamloops Fire Centre has seen 623 lightning strikes,” mentioned Shantz, including the area had 11 hearth begins, 10 of that are believed to be from lightning.
Conditions within the Southern Interior are presently sizzling and aren’t anticipated to alter anytime quickly.
With above-average temperatures and probably extra lightning on the way in which, mixed with little to no precipitation within the forecast, it received’t take a lot to spark a hearth.
“When you have dry forest fuels on the landscape, and you’re seeing over 600 strikes, you’re going to see fires starting,” mentioned Shantz.
“We saw 11 starts yesterday and were expecting more today. There’s additional lightning on the way.
“On top of that, you have what’s called hold-over fires – that’s where lightning strikes, but the fire doesn’t start until the fuels dry out a little bit more. That’s what’s expected today.”
So far this 12 months, there have been 733 wildfires throughout the province, in comparison with a 10-year common of 514 for a similar time interval.
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