UPDATE: PRRD says no planned changes to evacuation alerts and orders

(UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. May 16th) The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) says the immediate danger threatening properties southwest of the Red Creek and Stoddart Creek wildfires has passed. The danger was the strong winds of up to 60 kilometres an hour that came through on Monday afternoon, which slowed down on Tuesday.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C.— The Peace River Regional District (PRRD) said there are no planned changes to active evacuation orders or alerts in an update on Tuesday afternoon.

PRRD emergency operations coordinator Mike Watkins said there are no changes because BC wildfire service (BCWS) crews had no time to map and investigate the fires in order to understand what the current risk is in the area.

BCWS fire information officer Hannah Swift said that due to the aggressive fire activity on Monday, a fire behaviour specialist is working on some modelling to estimate growth projections within the next 72 hours.

She said once they have that data, the BCWS will have a better idea of what recommendations to make on evacuation alerts and orders in the future.

When asked if the Stoddart and Red Creek fires could potentially merge into one large fire, Swift said it is possible, but there is no concern at this time, adding that it may not be a bad thing

“It would actually “tactically” be easier to objectively fight the wildfire if it was managed as one incident. Our team is likely going to move to managing it as one incident. We’re already halfway there because we are sharing resources between the two incidents already,” Swift said.

The BCWS continues to respond to four fires in the North Peace Complex—Red Creek, Cameron River, Boundary Lake and Stoddart Creek wildfires.

Swift said the northern winds forecasted Monday hit at around 2 p.m. as expected, but later in the evening, there was a further wind shift as the cold front passed through, which caused winds to come from the northeast.

This was positive for those in and around Fort St. John, said Swift, because it caused fire growth in the southwest, away from the city.

“Our projections were showing the growth would be more in the southeast direction, but again, it was predominantly to the southwest,” she said.

She added that crews saw a bit of a reprieve Tuesday compared to Monday, with lower temperatures, calmer winds and humidities higher on Tuesday than they have been.

“So we’re seeing winds from the northeast still, but they’re only 10 to 20 kilometres per hour at this time. [Monday] we were seeing winds gusting up to 60 kilometres per hour,” she said.

“We are in better shape [Tuesday] than we were [Monday], certainly, now that we have hunkered down and made it through that extreme wind event.”

Swift added that on Wednesday and Thursday, an upper ridge attacking north of B.C. will bring hot and dry weather back to the region.

Swift said the focus on Tuesday for crews was to make progress putting in containment lines on the south and east flanks of the Stoddart Creek fire and get a better idea of where the fire perimeter is. The service is also conducting some “forward planning” for the next 72 hours.”

Currently, 29 firefighters are responding to the fire during the day, and 48 are working overnight. Swift said resources are shared between the four fires in the North Peace Complex and are shifted to whichever fire presents the biggest risk.

BCWS will also be increasing resources over the next few days to make sure the fires have 24/7 coverage.

Due to heavy smoke, the BCWS said it was initially unclear if the guards on the south and southwest of the Red Creek fire held up. However, despite the 60-kilometre-per-hour winds pushing the fire in those directions, Swift said that the guards managed to stay in place.

“That’s a pretty good test for that wildfire to see if those containment lines will hold. So we’re feeling very confident about that one,” she said.

Swift added that the Red Creek fire experienced no new growth on Monday, even with the extreme weather conditions.

There are 62 firefighters continuing to mop up and tidy the area.

As of Tuesday, there is approximately 400 personnel responding to the fires in the North Peace Complex, including about 250 firefighters, 40 incident management team and support staff, 76 structure protection personnel, 22 heavy equipment operators and 22 helicopters.

Watkins stated that aside from structure protection personnel, there are security personnel and RCMP officers monitoring the area.

Due to wildfires in the area, the District of Taylor announced that it will be implementing a fire ban as of Tuesday afternoon, which includes category two and three fires and campfires. The ban will extend to Peace Island Park.

Taylor is also issuing a class three water restriction in the community that requires residents to stop watering their lawns so that the district can maintain its water reservoir in case it needs to fight wildfires in the community.

For the latest updates on wildfires in our region, visit energeticcity.ca/forest-fire-news/.