A small wildfire north of Skookumchuck Narrows has officially been put out by fire crews as of the morning of July 22.
The fire near Egmont was first reported on Thursday, July 14. By the next day, it had grown to two hectares in size and 17 crew members spent the weekend bringing the fire under control.
By July 18, it was suppressed to a point where it won’t spread under current conditions, said Coastal Fire Centre’s Nadia Linning, but crews remained on site to continue to extinguish the flames, patrol for further burning and monitor the area.
“The current moisture and current fire weather that we've been having has definitely contributed toward the fact that we've had very few fires overall in the Coastal Fire Centre to this point,” Linning said.
An initial attack crew, response officer and helicopter were dispatched to the fire’s location on Thursday afternoon. At the time, the fire was approximately half a hectare in size and classified as a rank two fire, since there was open flame. It was reported just before 4:30 p.m.
“It’s in quite steep terrain so the access is pretty tricky,” Linning said Thursday evening, adding that the crew had to confirm adjacent power lines had been shut down for safety. The response time required is unknown. Since then the fire has burned uphill, but has been cut off at the top by a bluff. The tail end of the fire was near a road, which created a sort of fuel-free break, Linning said.
The BC Wildfire Dashboard's interactive map now lists the suspected cause as "person."
The fire was highly visible from the Egmont and Skookumchuck Narrows areas in its early stages.
As of April 1, the start of wildfire season in B.C., there have been five wildfires in the Sunshine Coast zone. On the lower Coast, a 0.01 hectare fire near Clack Creek was recorded May 29, followed by a 0.3 hectare fire near 3 Mile Bay (north of Powell River) on July 3. Both fires have a suspected cause listed as “person.” In late June, two fires near Southgate were lit by lightning. All five have been declared out.
