As fire season begins to ramp up, the regional fire centre in Prince George is predicting that the danger level in Vanderhoof will rise to high this week. Residents need to remember that although lightning caused fires aren’t preventable, human caused ones are.
“At the moment the fire danger rating in Vanderhoof is low to moderate and we’re expecting it to stay that way at least until the end of Saturday,” said Eno last week. “After that, Sunday and Monday, we expect the danger rating to climb to high and that’s based on predictions of the weather. The weather is always the best predictor of fire behavior but unfortunately it’s challenging to predict it.”
Over June 29 and 30 crews and officers will be on standby in the Vanderhoof zone, they will be supported by crews from the neighboring areas should the need arise.
The closest ongoing forest fire is several hours away from Vanderhoof, up near Fort Nelson and there are a few more in the north-west zone closer to the coast. So Vanderhoof is fairly safe for now.
The Fort Nelson zone has 11 active fires the largest at 240 hectares in size. That fire has 61 firefighters and four helicopters working on it, it has not been deemed dangerous to structures or infrastructure of any kind.
Eno said that even though there are no fire restrictions for the area at the moment, people should still be careful.
“People should exercise caution, make sure to have hand tools or water on hand to extinguish the fire and to clear an area around the fire of at least one metre so it’s free of any fuels like dry grass or twigs.”
As of June 26, the Prince George Fire Centre has had 88 fires in comparison to an average of 126 fires. So the region is still doing better than average.
