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BCWS battling Hobo Creek fire near Parson
The East Kootenay remains mostly fire-free as British Columbia heads into its hottest wildfire week of the season, with 107 fires burning throughout the province.
However, there are four fires burning north and south of Golden.
The largest is the Hobo Creek fire, 12 kilometres west of Highway 95/Parson, and approximately 35 kilometres southeast of Golden.
The estimated 54 hectares lightning-caused fire was discovered Friday, July 20 and remains active but 100% guarded, reports the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS).
“The fire is 100% machine guarded, meaning heavy equipment was used to create a four to five metre wide section of exposed mineral soil around the perimeter of the fire. Hand ignition operations took place yesterday.
BC Wildfire Service reports 50 firefighters, three helicopters and nine pieces of heavy equipment are fighting the fire.
The Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has issued an evacuation alert for the recreation sites at Mitten Lake, Bittern Lake, Nine Bay and McLean Lake. The fire is not directly impacting these sites; however, it has potential to impact the Parson Forest Service Road used to access these sites.
The Beards Creek fire, discovered July 20 is about 10 km northeast of the Hobo fire, on the eastern side of Highway 95. The lightning-caused fire remains active and is about .4 ha in size.
There are a couple of other fires burning in the Golden area, including a .8 ha fire discovered July 19, south of Mummery Glacier Recreation Area, about 40 km northeast of town.
Lightning sparked another fire yesterday on Corsair Mountain (.01 ha in size), 40 km northwest of the Mummery fire. And about 20 km west of the Corsair fire is the Chatter Creek East fire, begun July 19 by lightning. It is listed as active and about 3.5 ha in size.
The St. Mary River/Wycliffe fire is still appearing on the BC Wildfire Service’s website’s active fires page, but it also notes it is 100% contained.
“This fire is classified as under control, meaning that the fire has received sufficient suppression action to ensure no further spread of the fire,” BC Wildfire reports.
BC Wildfire Service does not show any other active fires in the region.
Lead image: An aerial shot of the Hobo Creek wildfire. BCWS photo
