Crews still working on boundary lines for Battleship Mountain wildfire

HUDSON’S HOPE, B.C. — Crews working on the Battleship Mountain wildfire are trying to establish boundary lines around the fire’s south flank.

According to the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS), night operations will continue to monitor fire behaviour and perform small hand ignitions where safe.

Heavy equipment will work to build guard on the south flank of the fire off of the Johnson Forest Service Road towards Wright Lake, says the Wildfire of Note page.

Additionally, personnel are working to locate opportunities for containment lines around Wright Lake.

Tuesday, structure protection crews are reportedly monitoring and conducting tests on the system to ensure schedules and operations are running efficiently, such as water transport.

The wildfire is approximately 28,765 hectares and is classified as out of control.

There are 17 firefighters working during the day and 16 working on night operations.

Additionally, 60 structure protection personnel are assisting, five of which are working on night operations and five danger tree assessors and fallers are supporting.

There are also 15 pieces of heavy equipment and seven additional operational staff working with the equipment.

Twelve helicopters are also being shared between the fires of the Battleship Complex.

Sarah Hall, with the BCWS Incident Management Team assigned to the Battleship Complex, says they aren’t using water bombers due to the terrain.

“It’s just not safe for fixed-wing aircraft to effectively be able to operate in this area in order to drop water or retardant,” she explained.

“As well, because of the smoke, the visibility conditions are quite poor, and that’s also not safe for big wing aircraft to be flown in this area.”

She says the water bomber aircraft require a longer line of sight to fly safely.

The District of Hudson’s Hope has declared a state of emergency, and both the district and the Peace River Regional District have issued an evacuation order.

Additional emergency support for evacuees has been extended until Sunday, September 18th.

For the latest updates on forest fires in the B.C. Peace click here.