Forestry firefighters were back at the Taylor Flats fire at the west end of Sproat Lake Monday trying to contain the smouldering blaze that is burning in slash.
About 500 metres to the east people camping along the lake are keeping a close eye on it.
“Yeah it was a pretty good flamer up there for a while, there was a bunch of trees that looked like they were going to catch,” said Dean Ayogte who is camping in the area.
The fire was reported Sunday morning and fire crews were on the flames fast, bucketing water with a helicopter from the nearby lake but the fire was still too close for comfort for several campers who decided to leave.
“Yeah there was more than 10 people here earlier in the day and when all this went down they just all started bailing and packing up,” added Ayogte.
The fire has grown in size since first being spotted Sunday.
“Yeah it did grow, it went to 1.82 hectares today and we do have 24 firefighters, a helicopter and heavy equipment out there today working to suppress that fire,” said Fire Information Officer Dorthe Jakobsen.
The area is seeing extremely dry conditions.
“We are still very dry, we are still in drought as you know on the island, we haven’t had the precipitation we were hoping for with the Junes rains as yet,” added Jakobsen.
Officials say the fire is believed to have been started by people although the exact cause is still being investigated.
Dean Stoltz
