Two new fires added to Donnie Creek Complex

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Two new wildfires have been added to the Donnie Creek Complex.

The Donnie Creek Complex consists of the Donnie Creek, Klua Lakes, Muskwa River, Zaremba Creek wildfires, and now, the newly started Fontas River fire, and a  fire located approximately 135 kilometres north of Fort St. John.

Shaelee Stearns, fire information officer on the Donnie Creek Complex, said the Fontas River wildfire, discovered on June 30th, is approximately 12,704 hectares and suspected to be caused by lightning.

The fire approximately 135 kilometres north of Fort St. John was discovered on July 6th and is about five hectares. The fire is considered out of control and suspected to be caused by lightning.

The Donnie Creek wildfire is approximately 575,164 hectares, and Stearns said the growth is due to drier temperatures in the area.

She said the fire is mainly displaying rank three and four fire behaviour.

“It’s a highly vigorous surface fire with intermittent crown fires, and there was growth on various parts of the fire due to the changing weather that we had seen,” Stearns said.

She said Friday morning’s weather of smoke and fog will decrease fire activity on the ground, but crews expect to see winds coming from the south and southeast which will likely push the smoke to the north. 

“We’ll start to get more sun on the south side of the fire, so crews will be monitoring that throughout the day and looking for any activity changes due to the weather pattern change,” Stearns said.

On Friday, 96 firefighters, 17 operational field staff, eight helicopters, 19 pieces of heavy equipment and 12 structure protection personnel are assigned to the complex.

The Peace River Regional District rescinded evacuation orders for the Donnie Creek wildfire on June 18th, but some evacuation alerts remain in place. An area restriction is also still in place around the wildfire.

Stearns said crews are still monitoring the other fires in the complex.

The Muskwa River wildfire is still about 20,292 hectares and is being held.

The Klua Lakes wildfire also saw some growth and is about 40,981 hectares. The Zaremba Creek wildfire is estimated at 6,910 hectares.

The Tooga Creek wildfire is still around 36,445 hectares, and an evacuation alert remains for the area.

The West Kiskatinaw River wildfire is classified as being held at 25,095 hectares, and the Peavine Creek wildfire is under control at 4,427 hectares.

The area restriction around the South Peace Complex was rescinded as of noon on July 6th.

There are 35 active wildfires in the Prince George Fire Centre.

Environment Canada reissued a special air quality statement on June 20th for Fort Nelson and the North Peace region. The air quality is very high risk in Fort St. John in areas with smoke.

The latest information on air quality can be found on the Government of Canada’s website.

For the latest information on evacuation orders and alerts, visit the Peace River Regional District’s, Tumbler Ridge’s, and Northern Rockies Regional Municipality’s websites.

For the latest wildfire information, visit BCWS’ website.