Fire update - August 9

A reminder that a campfire ban is now in place for the Cariboo as of July 31. Official details here.

Another hot day at the lake today with a high of 32C. The smoke wasn't too bad, just a slight haze most of the day.  However it started to thicken up a little this evening.

Not quite as bad as yesterday on the fire front with 18+ new fires across the province; around half in a 100km band from Williams Lake to the Jasper/Yoho border.  North of Horse Lake again added two new fires, but one was also upgraded to "Out", so there are now five in that area.  None of these are of note as of yet.

There are currently 29 fires listed as "Out of control" in the Cariboo.  By the end of the day, we will have more fires started in the first nine days of August than all of July.  Fire season is really just beginning.

New fires include:
Deception Mountain - two fires on the east side of the mountain.  They are approximately 12km east of McNeil Lake.  One is 80ha, the other is 2.1ha, both are "Out of Control"

Buffalo Lake - about 2.5km southwest of the lake.  No details yet.

Existing notable fires:

Mt Hendrix - All three fires east of the mountain are now listed as "Out of control" and two have updated sizes.  The fire east of McNeil Lake remains at 1.5ha. The fire 3km west of McNeil is now 15ha.  The fire just off of the top of the McNeil FSR is now at 115ha.  This is surprising, since I couldn't see any activity there on Monday.  I'll check it out in person tomorrow.

Hawkins Lake - 1km southwest of Hawkins.  No details yet.

Lang Lake - still three fires around the lake. The biggest is on the south side of the lake and now listed at 130ha. The east side fire is listed at 10 ha and is still "Being Held".

Canim Lake - The fire that was originally reported on August 1st and re-appeared on the map on Sunday still has no specifics.

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:  207 new fires, 130 still active
All of May: 125 new fires, 6 still active
All of June: 178 new fires, 16 still active
All of July: 298 new fires, 119 still active
All of Aug: 295 new fires, 216 still active

Current "Out of Control" fires: 215

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

BC map August 9 at 8:00pm