A series of lightning storms on the Island following a dry spell is suspected to have caused 13 new wildfires on Saturday.
The Coastal Fire Centre says they are north of Campbell River, and that crews working to reach them as quickly as possible.
“[They could be growing] or the fires could just be a single tree,” said fire information officer Donna MacPherson. “A good advantage of the storm that went through last night where there was the heaviest lightning was it was also raining, that will help some.”
lightning storms hit parts of the Island last night and are predicted to continue across the Island Saturday.
lightning pictured in Port Hardy Friday night. (Photo: Vi-Anne Roberts)
“We will be watching [the storm] very carefully,” said fire information officer Dorthe Jacobsen.
Near Port Alberni one 20-hectare wildfire is still out of control, and another 10-hectare blaze is 80 per cent contained.
Both fires are suspected to be human-caused.
The larger fire burning south of the city on Arbutus Summit has 33 firefighters, six pieces of heavy equipment and two helicopters working to extinguish it.
Fire retardant is dropped on the Arbutus Summit fire on Friday. Photo Credit: Carole Barnett.
Twenty firefighters along with three helicopters and heavy pieces of equipment are working to battle the nearly contained fire in the Beaufort Range north of the city.
“We are begging the public to respect the prohibitions,” said Jacobsen. “Please be careful when you are out there if you see anything please report it quickly… we are really troubled by these human-caused fires as they take a lot of precious resources from naturally occurring fires.”
The larger fire is south of the city, while the nearly contained blaze is north-east. (B.C. Wildfire Service)
The wildfire sparked on Wednesday on Maple Mountain near Duncan has been contained by local and provincial crews, and is at 5.5 hectares.
There was no growth over Friday night, a precautionary Evacuation Alert for the homes east of Osborne Bay Road from Herd Road to Tatlo Road West is still in effect.
A photo taken Wednesday of the smoke rising from a fire burning on Maple Mountain near Crofton.
Crews have made progress on the 182-hectare wildfire burning near Nanaimo in the Nanaimo Lakes area. An evacuation order has been downgraded, and an alert was removed Saturday.
Water being dropped on the Nanaimo Lakes wildfire Wednesday.
READ MORE: Evacuation order downgraded, alert removed following Nanaimo Lakes Wildfire progress.
Julian Kolsut
