A wildfire that sparked Monday on Pike Mountain near Princeton quadrupled in size in 24 hours.
The fire is located southwest of Allison Lake, not far from where a 3,500 hectare blaze burned for over a month in 2017.
According to BC Wildfire the Pike Mountain fire measured 16.4 hectares Tuesday at 4 p.m..
Forty-six personnel, air tankers and three helicopters were actioning the fire Tuesday, said Marla Catherall, spokesperson for the Kamloops Fire Centre.
The fire is suspected to be human-caused and an investigative team was also dispatched to the scene Tuesday.
The blaze was first reported Monday afternoon and was .5 hectares. Monday evening it was reassessed at 3.5 hectares and it jumped to 7 hectares overnight.
“It’s shown some growth,” said Catherall.
Erris Fire Chief David Stringfellow said his department had not been contacted by BC Wildfire to provide support to the suppression efforts, as of Tuesday afternoon.
However he has been keeping a close eye on the Pike Mountain situation, and the rest of the region.
“I think the big story here is that there were a lot of fires that started yesterday…Everybody has been thinking that we had this nice wet start to the summer and we had dodged a bullet for the fire season this year, but we have this heat now and it can still be pretty dangerous out there,” he said.
“I just think that people need to take precautions and not be too comfortable.”
The RDOS Emergency Operations Centre was not involved with the incident Tuesday, according to information officer Erick Thompson.
“We keep in touch with BC Wildfire Service regarding any fires that are affecting our area,” he said.
“We communicate when it’s needed but we are certainly monitoring any fires that are happening in the regional district.”
