Fire update - August 12

Very cool day at the lake today, high of 15C.  Moderate smoke and heavy fog up in higher elevations.  The smoke almost completely cleared around 6pm, but started rolling in again at 8pm.

We likely did get close to 30mm of rain from 6:00 Saturday through noon Sunday, as we had light rain during the morning today.  Also on the plus side, it looks like the heavy rain may have prevented or snuffed out most of the fires started by the lightning last night.

There are currently 32 fires listed as "Out of control" in the Cariboo.

Alerts
There is still an evacuation alert for Eagle Creek and Hawkins Lake area due to the Lang Lake South fire (see details below).  Hendrix Lake residents received a call for this one on Friday because we are on the same exchange.  Hendrix Lake is NOT on evacuation alert.

The evacuation order for the area south of Buffalo Lake has been downgraded to alert.  This is a few kms east of Gateway.  The fire there has held at 20ha, and is now "Being Held".


Orders
There is still an evacuation order for the Lang Lake and Murphy Lake areas.  This is due to the two large fires at Lang Lake.


New fires include:
Hendrix Ridge - the fire that may have been seen Friday night by the tailing ponds just appeared on the map.  It's listed at 110ha and approximately 5km south of the tailing ponds - 3.3km due west from Stinson Lake.  I'll check this one out again tomorrow.

Existing notable fires:
McNeil FSR -  The fire just off of the top of the McNeil FSR is still listed at 117ha, but I suspect it's over 200.  There are some areas on the southern flank that are still smoldering, but I couldn't see any flames or hear any fire crackling.  There was very heavy fog in the area today, so no possibility of aerial assessments.

Mt Hendrix - The two fires on the east side of Mt Hendrix are still "Out of control".  The fire east of McNeil Lake remains at 1.5ha.  The fire 3km west of McNeil Lake is still listed at 15ha, but now snows a fire perimeter slightly larger than the McNeil FSR fire (pic below).  Based on the map, the northern flank of the fire should be at the western end of the Deitrich FSR.  I rode up there today as well and didn't see any evidence of a fire.  I'll keep an eye on this one.

Location of the two McNeil fires

Lang Lake South - about 3km south of the lake and 8km from Eagle Creek.  The fire is still listed at 440ha.  The are east of Lang Lake is heavily logged, but south (towards Eagle Creek) and southwest (towards Schoolhouse Lake Provincial Park and Ruth Lake) is not. There is now 4 heavy equipment operators building guard lines.  This area received heavy rain last night as well.

Lang Lake North - a few hundred meters from the north end of the lake.  No update today, still listed at 345 ha. 

Buffalo Lake - about 2.5km southwest of the lake.  This fire is now "Being Held", see above for evac alert that is still in effect.  This will be the last update for this fire.

2018 BC wildfire stats
June 20-23: 136 new fires, 13 still active
July 17-19:  64 new fires, 17 still active
July 30-Aug 1:  210 new fires, 128 still active
All of May: 125 new fires, 3 still active
All of June: 178 new fires, 16 still active
All of July: 309 new fires, 115 still active
All of Aug: 389 new fires, 285 still active

Current "Out of Control" fires: 273

Note: these stats are for fires greater than 0.01 hectares.

BC map August 12 at 8:00pm