The Watching Creek fire burning northwest of Kamloops on August 2. UPDATE: 9:42 a.m Reduced fire activity is expected Wednesday on the Watching Creek fire burning northwest of Kamloops due to changing weather. The fire, burning about nine kilometers north of Tranquille in the Lac du Bois area, is believed to have been sparked Friday by lightning. It saw significant growth during the heat of Monday afternoon and is now estimated at 195 acres. “Cooler weather, higher relative humidity and cloud cover are expected today and will help reduce fire behavior,” the BC Wildfire Service said in an update posted online Wednesday morning. “Smoke will likely remain visible from Kamloops and nearby communities for the next several days.” Twenty firefighters are on the ground battling the blaze, the agency said, with six helicopters and 10 pieces of heavy equipment providing support. Skimmers and air tankers hit the fire from the air on Tuesday, and the plan calls for more of the same on Wednesday. The latest BC Wildfire Service mapping places the perimeter of the fire about nine kilometers north of the Kamloops city limits at Tranquille. The easternmost flank of the fire is approximately 13 kilometers west of Westsyde Road. This story will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes known. ORIGINAL STORY: 4 A.M The Watching Creek fire is burning about 18 kilometers away from the eastern perimeter of last year’s Sparks Lake fire, according to the BC Wildfire Service. The Watching Creek fire — estimated to be about 195 hectares in size — is burning about nine kilometers northwest of the Kamloops city limits in Tranquille, which was sparked by lightning late last week. When asked if the fire’s proximity to a previously burned area could be used as a containment strategy, Aydan Coray, fire information officer for BCWS, said it was possible — but the fire would have to grow far to the west to come so far “They have done it in the past. It also depends on whether the area burned last year, how badly it burned last year. Because some areas burned very badly — down to mineral soil — and there’s no fuel to burn, which is like a fuel buffer,” Coray said. “Some areas would have burned less severely and probably had a pretty good recovery in vegetation this spring, with all the moisture. So it totally depends on the area and the fire activity they’re seeing.” Corey said if a fire starts in a similar area to a previous fire, there are also sometimes old guards in the area that can be reused to control the spread of the new fire. On Tuesday, BCWS crews returned to fight the fire after being evacuated from the area by helicopter on Monday due to increasing intensity of fire behavior. “Helicopters and air skimmer tankers have been actively working the fire throughout the day,” BCWS said in an update Tuesday afternoon. Coray said an Incident Management Team has been assigned to control the fire and will begin work on Wednesday. According to the BCWS, an IMT takes over response elements such as funding, logistics, planning and operations, freeing up the local fire station to focus its resources on dealing with new fires. The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has issued an evacuation warning for certain properties in the Lac Du Bois Grasslands Protected Area and Pass Lake, McQueen Lake and Isobel Lake. The City of Kamloops activated its Emergency Operations Center on Tuesday, saying it is monitoring the behavior of nearby wildfires, but there is no immediate threat to the community. This story will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes known.
