Firefighting operations help suppress fire along southeast flank

Helicopter bucketing and skimmer operations Monday evening have dropped the fire rank along the southeastern flank of the White Rock Lake wildfire near Westside Road.

The operations, which were performed between 5:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Monday, saw crews focus on a 600 metre stretch in the Nashwito Creek area. Before the operation was launched, the fire was at Rank 2 and 3 in the area, but information officer Taylor MacDonald said crews were able to bring that down to Rank 1, which is a smoldering ground or surface fire.

Monday’s operations also saw a contingency machine guard built near the northern front at Duck Lake Road south of Pritchard. The fire isn’t very close to the area, and there are no ignitions planned along the front, but the guard has been set up as a contingency in case the fire does move in that direction.

MacDonald adds machine guards, which work to remove ignitable fuels, are also operational in multiple other areas to try to preemptively stop the spread of the fire.

The White Rock Lake fire, which is still considered as ‘out of control,’ is approximately 55,649 hectare in size, and about 34 kilometres northwest of Vernon, but MacDonald warned the upcoming weather may see that size increase.

“I think the winds are expected to pick up, mostly tomorrow (Wednesday) looking at it, but we are expecting to see potentially some gusts of 30 to 40 kilometres per hour this afternoon (Tuesday),” said MacDonald.

“So we are expecting to see the winds pick up compared to the last few days. Our crews are preparing to follow any safety precautions for wind events.”

MacDonald adds the safety precautions will also be increased as the warmer weather is expected to steadily increase through the week, peeking at a high of 35 C on Saturday.

In addition to increasing safety precautions, fire crews will deploy resources to areas that are expected to see increased fire activity due to the weather, and preemptively work on those areas before the situation escalates.

MacDonald also asks that people follow their local governments’ evacuation orders when issued so firefighters can get to work on the front line and not have to put themselves at risk in order to evacuate anyone that stayed behind.