All remains quiet on the fire front in Prince George, but the province's wildfire branch has issued a strong-wind warning for the Tisigar Lake fire in Northern B.C.
The Tisigar Fire near Watson Lake, 35 kilometres south of the Yukon border, and the largest fire in the province, has grown to nearly 10,000 hectares.
Winds as high as 45 kilometres per hour are expected to come from the north, and will test containment lines on the southern portion of the fire, said fire information officer Erin Catherall.
The firefighting crews have been working aggressively to remove the fuels in the fire guard, and extinguish hot spots. It means there is nothing on the forest floor to burn, she said.
Provincial fire information officers said as the strong winds increase the chance of falling trees and may make the fire more intense and bring more smoke. "Our No. 1 priority is our crews' safety. If it becomes too dangerous, the crews will be removed from the fire lines," said Catherall.
Considerable resources have been applied to the fire.
There are 125 firefighters and contract workers on the fire, and another 37 support staff. The crews are being assisted by bull dozers and seven helicopters.
Highway 37 has not been closed, but the B.C. Ministry of Transportation advises that there are stretches that could be limited to single-lane traffic during the day in the area of the fire.
Access to the area around the fire is, however, restricted to those who are going to or from their homes.
For more information on the fires, check out www.bcwildfire.ca.
In the Prince George area, the fire season has been quiet so far.
There are no fires of note in the region, and none that were sparked over the weekend, said fire information officer Jillian Chimko.
Last week, there were eight fires in the Prince George Fire Centre region, more than half of them sparked by lightening.
One fire, east of Fort Nelson, in the far northeast, reached 50 hectares.
Fires cut a wide swath through north and central B.C. last year, burning more than 300,000 hectares.
While the fire hot zone was located in the Southern Interior in 2009, in 2010 it moved farther north, fuelled by extremely dry conditions in the beetle-killed pine forests in this region.
Prince George was not threatened by wildfires last year. The closest fires were 70 kilometres to the southwest. However, the region did experience aggressive fire behaviour. The Binta Lake fire more than tripled in size in one day, advancing 17.5 kilometres overnight.
Although the spring has been cool and there is a higher than normal snow pack in many areas of the Interior, Environment Canada has forecasted a warmer and slightly drier than normal July and August.
