BURST
When Pemberton resident Marc Cousineau looked out his townhouse window Thursday night, he could see the glow of a wildfire burning just a few hundred metres away.
The flames were close enough that he started packing up essentials and moving belongings to a friend’s place in Whistler.
“This is not typical for Pemberton,” Cousineau told Postmedia News.
The nearly 100-hectare Signal Hill wildfire was one of the 114 fires burning across B.C. on Saturday. B.C. Wildfire Service reported 86 new wildfire starts in the previous 24 hours, with 87 wildfires believed to have been sparked by lightning as dry thunderstorms had moved through southern parts of the province.
The human-caused Signal Hill wildfire has led to an evacuation alert covering the Village of Pemberton and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District since Wednesday, while an evacuation order remained in place for One Mile Lake Park, an area just south of the village that is used for crews. The orders remained in effect Saturday.
About 57 firefighters and four helicopters were assigned to the Signal Hill wildfire overnight Friday as crews worked to strengthen containment and monitor it for new fire activity.
Firefighters established containment lines from Pemberton Creek to the southwest corner of the fire, as well as along Pemberton Creek toward the intersection of Bob’s Loop and Lumpy’s Epic.
While many left town, Cousineau said residents who stayed in the village were feeling some relief after rainfall earlier in the week.
“But the wildfire could flare up and get ugly again if wind returns and it isn’t attacked enough right now,” he said. “Helicopters are flying by me right now, still battling the blaze.”
B.C. Wildfire Service said the increase in wildfire starts is not unusual for this time of year, and has been driven by storm and lightning systems across parts of the province.
Communications officer Rick Van Kesteren said crews were pre-stationed in areas where storms were forecast, allowing firefighters to respond quickly and extinguish new starts.
“In the last 24 hours, the service put out 28 wildfires.”
B.C. Hydro says several outages linked to the Signal Hill wildfire affected approximately 3,055 customers in the Pemberton area Thursday.
Kesteren added that the storm system moving through B.C. is expected to bring more lightning to the northeast this weekend, along with drier conditions forecast to return in the coming days.
“We’ll have to wait and see what the rest of the week looks like.”
Farther east in the Fraser Canyon, hundreds of residents in and around Boston Bar remained under evacuation order as the Brunswick Complex wildfires burned across more than 20,000 hectares.
The fires include the Brunswick Creek and Ainslie Creek wildfires, which have been burning out of control, driven by strong winds, dry conditions and steep terrain. As of Friday, about 370 firefighters and 20 helicopters were assigned to the fires.
The Fraser Valley Regional District confirmed Friday that at least seven structures, including four homes or seasonal cabins, had been destroyed by wildfire.
Highway 1 remained closed through the area.