Green Mountain burning in summer 2017. Karen Powell photo

Green Mountain burning in summer 2017. Karen Powell photo

BC Wildfire Service contains small overwintering fire on Green Mountain

The fire, which was reported June 3, is 100 per cent contained

  • Jun. 4, 2018 12:00 a.m.

The B.C. Wildfire Service website is reporting a small 0.01 hectare fire on Green Mountain, discovered on Sunday June 3.

The website says the suspected cause of the fire is lightning; however, Jessica Mack, the fire information officer with the Cariboo Fire Centre, says they’ve determined the fire to be an overwintering fire, defined as a hotspot from last summer’s wildfire.

“An overwintering fire can occur when a wildfire that burned deep underground last year has continued to smolder all winter long,” she says.

A total of four resources responded to the incident and Mack says that at this time it is 100 per cent contained.

Green Mountain burned in 2017, with the fire believed to have been caused by lightning. Highway 97 South was closed for part of the summer. By July 7 2017, 140 fires had started throughout B.C., with the majority in the central interior.

Quesnel Cariboo Observer