Vancouver — Nineteen people were forced to flee their homes late Sunday night as a forest fire raced towards two tiny communities on the Yukon-B.C. border.
Everyone who was asked to leave did, said Cynthia Mann, a provincial fire information officer.
Yukon fire crews fighting the Cole River fire placed sprinklers on all threatened structures, but by Monday afternoon, Ms. Mann said it wasn't clear on whether anything had been damaged.
“The wind is blowing the ash ahead of the fire and its creating new fires ahead of it and that's usually associated with extreme fire behaviour,” Ms. Mann said, adding the fire is about 100 square kilometres in size.
The raging Seton Lake fire sends a plume of smoke thousands of feet in the air above Seton Lake, B.C. (Doug Grossler/CP)
The Alaska Highway was closed by RCMP. Only traffic heading to local destinations not affected by the fire was allowed to proceed.
A weather inversion in the area meant smoke hovered close to the ground Monday, causing visibility problems for traffic and aircraft.
Evacuated residents reported to a reception centre in Watson Lake and were being put up in hotels or at private residences.
Evacuees were asked to close all their windows and doors, shut off their gas appliances, turn the house and yard lights on and close their gates, according to the order issues by the office of the fire commissioner.
The situation was looking somewhat better in the rest of the province.
Some weekend rain allowed firefighters to put out about 14 fires, but that's barely a dent in the 434 that continue to burn.
Fire information officer Nancy Argyle said some fire crews had to cope with winds of up to 80 kilometres an hour during the weekend.
“That certainly made for some extreme fire behaviour on some of those fires. Crews in some instances had to pull back for a little bit but they're back on them again today working hard at it.”
She said as of Sunday afternoon, about 448 fires were burning, but by Monday, it was down to 434.
However, last year at this time, there were only 59.
Ms. Argyle said the weather outlook is for the return of hot, dry conditions.
Despite the early, full onslaught to the fire season, firefighters are holding up well, said Kevin Matuga, a fire information officer for the Kamloops region.
“This is what these guys do and we've got a lot of fit, trained men and women on our fire crews and they're used to this kind of work.
“We have very, very strict safety issues with our crews and we ensure that the crews maintain a fitness level so they can handle this kind of workload.”
Mr. Matuga said the firefighters would get rest when they need it, but “we're not dealing with any weary firefighters right now.”
Meanwhile, tourism operators are already concerned that the wildfire season could put another damper on the B.C. industry.
Michael Campbell, president of the Council of Tourism Associations, said media reporting of the wildfires will play a crucial role in determining whether tourism is healthy or whether it goes into the tank.
“Bad stories get better air time than good stories. But I think the national media, particularly where you've got television involved, they can tend to inflame the public and they make it much worse than it actually is.”
