By Black Press
Evacuation orders and alerts for the Alli Lake fire were rescinded on Tuesday, due to reduced risk.
As of Sunday, May 27, BC Wildfire Service reported that 35 per cent of the Allie Lake wildfire has been contained, mostly on the southern flank where it originated on May 23.
“We are making good progress on this fire,” said Heather Rice, fire information officer. “The fire is quieter today due to cloudy, cooler weather.”
The containment reaches around some of the other flanks and Rice said the service hasn’t been using their buckets due to the quietness of the fire and lack of wind.
She said the service is still working on installing fire guards on the northeastern flank. The guard was meant to be finished earlier but the activity of the fire on May 27 made it hard to do so.
“Now that it is quieter there, we are able to do some work there. We are trying to pinch off that entire northeastern flank so we can contain it there,” said Rice.
An upcoming cold front had the service focusing their energy on the eastern front, with the wind looking to shift the path of the fire southeasterly instead of northeastern.
“We are really working in the area to make sure we’re fortifying that guard,” said Rice. “Part of the good news is that they are anticipating some rain with that cold front, perhaps overnight or tomorrow.”
On May 28, boundary changes were made to the area restriction order on Crown land.
Instead of going through the middle of Bonaparte Lake the restriction now rests below the lake. Everything else about the order remains the same.
The Allie Lake fire is still estimated at 2,700 hectares. Because of how spotty the fire is, with a very large area within the perimeter unburned, the fire rank behaviour varies going up to rank 3 or 4 in some spots in the afternoon, she says.
The spottiness can provide extra challenges because it’s so spread out, says Rice.
“Even though we’re trying to contain that fire, it could burn for quite some time because there is so many small spots. So this is the kind of fire where rain could really help our efforts a lot.”
As long as there are not severe winds, they should be able to contain the fire within the current perimeters and will be able to contain it within the current perimeter, she says.
Because there are some cabins in the area, they’ll do their best to extinguish some spots within the perimeter and do some burn off operations within to make sure that heavy fuels don’t remain to recatch fire.
