While homeowners southwest of Prince George were keeping a close eye on the Little Bobtail Lake forest fire, a Pineview area couple's attention was focussed on a much smaller blaze but with the potential to become just as big.
Walter and Svea Anchicoski were on pins and needles when roughly three weeks ago a fire erupted near the edge of their cattle ranch at the end of Johnson Road in a sawdust pile from a sawmill that was destroyed in the massive Grove forest fire of August 1961.
The Anchicoskis' property backs onto the Tabor Mounain Recreation Area where the sawdust pile sits, and the couple, who have lived there since 1955, vividly remember the blaze that swept across Tabor Mountain.
Those memories were front and centre when they alerted the province's wildfire management branch after seeing smoke and flames from the pile.
At one point, Svea even saw nearby trees "crown" with flames from the fire in the sawdust pile and the Anchicoskis say it was just a change in wind direction away from becoming something much more significant.
Firefighters were sent in and eventually the province's wildfire management branch resorted to sending over a helicopter to dump a load of water from above.
That seemed to do the trick - the site was cold on Tuesday while a hose remains draped across the site just in case a fire flares up once more.
"In the end, it didn't amount to much but it could've," Walter said.
What's frustrating for the Anchicoskis is they have reason to believe the fire was man-made as deep tracks from all-terrain vehicles were found at the scene, where scorch marks were evident on the sawdust pile and adjacent trees. They're asking off-road vehicle users to be careful and, if they do spark a fire, to either try to put it out or report it, "not just run away."
The Anchicoskis said it was just the second time in the years they've lived there that the pile has caught fire.
The Grove fire was big news in August 1961. Believed to have been started by a spark from a chainsaw in the Buckhorn Lake area, it grew to the point where it turned out to be the most expensive fire ever fought up to that time.
Initially, firefighters had it under control but then the winds picked up.
"I would say in four hours, maybe not that long, it traveled from way down the Buckhorn to past Six Mile Lake," Walter said.
The wind was so strong it would break off burning tree tops and carry them along to ignite more forest up ahead, said Svea, then the main fire would catch up.
Adding to the woe, another major blaze, the Tsus fire, had broken out in the Willow River area. The size of the Grove and Tsus fires were placed at about 10,000 hectares and 12,000 hectares respectively and a giant plume of smoke could be seen from downtown Prince George.
"We didn't see the sun for a long time," Svea said.
The sawmill that sat behind the Anchicoskis' ranch was destroyed in the Grove fire.
According to a story in the Prince George Citizen, sawmill owner Alf Strom said a bulldozer that was sent in to protect the structure was 15 minutes too late.
"We had nothing else to fight the fire with," Strom said.
Another witness told The Citizen the woods were like "gunpowder."
"You just look at it and it explodes," Vic Hunter said at the time.
As it turned out, 1961 was the second-busiest forest fire season on record since the provincial government began keeping track in 1950 with 4,830 square kilometres burned. The busiest was 1958, when 8,590 square kilometres burned and the third most active was 2014 at 3,590 square kilometres.
-- with files from the Canadian Press
