6 p.m. update: The controlled burn that was planned to take place this afternoon did not happen, according to Heather Rice, Fire Information Officer for the Gustafsen Fire.
“The test burn indicated they didn’t have the burning window that they wanted. With all this smoke it created a bit of an inversion, so they wouldn’t get the draw they needed to have the fire do what they wanted it to do. So it did not take place for that bit of a test burn and it will continue to sort of be weather dependent.”
The good news is that the fire has not grown substantially, according to Rice. She adds that the fire is still holding west of Highway 97 and that the perimeter is still largely the same.
“A little bit maybe one way or the other but nothing significant at all.”
According to Rice, the weather in the 100 Mile area tomorrow is expected to be similar to today with the lightening expected to stay further north, although that could still change.
1:54 p.m. update: BC Wildfire will be conducting a burn off this afternoon on the south west corner of the Gustafsen fire, says Heather Rice, Fire Information Officer for the fire.
She says this will be to “help mitigate the fire spread.”
She says that if people in the area see an increase in smoke, or more of a plume caused by a hotter fire, it will be because of the controlled burn.
“This enhances the fire guards we already have in place.”
July 11, 9 a.m.: “The fire size is still estimated at approximately 5,000 [hectares] because we’re actually doing a pretty good job at holding it within it’s perimeters,” says Heather Rice, Fire Information Officer for the Gustafsen Fire.
“We had overestimated the size previously when we said it was 5,000, when we did a closer inspection of our data it was actually closer to 4,400 at that time … so now we’re still maintaining at 5,000.”
“Things went actually quite well yesterday as well … and overnight we didn’t see a lot of change, so the fire has not crossed the highway at Highway 97. We had a couple of spot fires that one night [July 9], but those are all out so the fire is still in the west side of Highway 97 and it has not moved any further north than we had previously stated,” she says.
“Things are looking pretty good … It all depends on the winds but it’s looking pretty good from last night and going in today so far.”
