B.C. Fire Crews to Join Suppression Effort on Wildfire Near Canadian Border

Photo Credit: NWS IMET Operations/Twitter

BC Wildfire Service crews will assist American crews on the suppression efforts on the Stickpin Fire burning in Washington.

Ground crews, equipment, and support staff are expected to begin working on the fire on Sunday.

“We are anticipating have resources on the fire tomorrow,” said Fanny Bernard, Fire Information Officer for the Southeast Fire Zone. “Our resources are going to tie-in where U.S. crews have left off establishing containment lines and looking for burn-off operations, so our BC Wildfire Services crews are going to be working as though they were in B.C.”

The Stickpin Fire is estimated to be 19,000 hectares in size and the closest point to Canada is approximately four kilometres southwest of the border near Grand Forks.

“We’ve been working closely with U.S. and Canada border services to prepare for movement of crews across the border and that has been going extremely well. Both branches have been very cooperative,” Bernard said.

The fire is 15 per cent contained and is suspected to be caused by lightning.

The blaze has seen a lot of heat and wind, but has seen minimal growth towards the border in recent days.

Photo Credit: BC Forest Fire Info/Facebook

“What really got this fire a lot of attention was last Friday, on the 14^th, very strong southerly winds, high temperatures, and low relative humidity created growth towards the north and also created a very high plume of smoke,” Bernard said.

The Southeast Fire Centre has seen 10 new fires since Thursday. There was rainfall Friday night, but hot and dry conditions are expected to return Monday, along with the potential for dry lightning.

Bernard recommends homeowners take preventative measures to protect their homes from the threat of wildfires.

“Getting rid of collectable materials around their homes, wood piles, cleaning out their gutters, pruning up their trees, and just generally maintaining the fire smart principles. Those are really good steps people can take,” Bernard said.

The FireSmart principles are available on the BC Wildfire Service website.