Low on power or data? Use CBC Lite for the latest wildfire news.
A Vancouver Island wildfire continues to grow out of control Wednesday.
The Mount Underwood fire jumped to 20.36 square kilometres (2,036 hectares) Wednesday morning, and is burning more than 10 kilometres south of Port Alberni, B.C., a small city home to about 19,000 people.
More than 500 properties in the Bamfield and Anacla areas are still without power due to the blaze, according to B.C. Hydro’s outage list. Those properties haven’t had power since around 6 p.m. PT Monday.
The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) has said the power is expected to be out for longer than 72 hours.
Evacuation orders have been issued by the ACRD and Cowichan Valley Regional District for a mix of commercial, industrial and recreational properties.
A fire just south of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island has grown to 14 square kilometres. It’s closed the main road to Bamfield, cut power to the west coast community and forced the evacuation of a nearby campground. Katie DeRosa reports.
The fire rapidly expanded Tuesday, ballooning from about 6.3 square kilometres Monday night to almost 14.5 square kilometres Tuesday night, before growing again Wednesday.
ACRD chair and Huu-ay-aht First Nations Chief Coun. John Jack said the quick growth of the fire is concerning.
“This is a fire that hasn’t really been seen on Vancouver Island,” he told CBC’s On the Island Wednesday morning.
Three evacuation alerts are also in effect, issued by the ACRD, the City of Port Alberni for the Cameron Heights neighbourhood, and Tseshaht First Nation. The alerts, which require residents to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, cover almost 200 affected properties.
Jack stressed that those under evacuation alert should have a plan for where to stay, where to keep pets and what to do for medications, especially if they need refrigeration.
‘Unprecedented’ dry conditions
Julia Caranci, fire information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said this “extreme” fire behaviour is unusual for Vancouver Island.
“We are in the midst of a severe drought,” she said at a news conference Tuesday. She noted strong winds had pushed the fire “aggressively” uphill.
“In the seven years I’ve worked for the Coastal Fire Centre, I don’t think I’ve seen a fire like this on Vancouver Island,” Caranci said.
She said the “unprecedented” dry conditions, combined with the strong winds, hot weather and steep, rugged terrain, came together to contribute to the fire’s growth.
“When the temperature is rising and the relative humidity falls, and we have strong winds pushing on a new incident, we can see that explosive type of growth. Again, we don’t normally see that on fires on Vancouver Island.”
Wildfire officers do not expect the upcoming rain to have a strong impact on the current fire behaviour, Caranci said.
B.C. Wildfire Service crews, including five helicopters and five skimmers, are responding to the fire.
The province has issued an air quality warning due to the wildfire smoke. It recommended residents near Port Alberni and areas to the southeast such as Lake Cowichan limit their time outdoors, as increasing smoke levels can increase health risks.
The service said there is no threat to Bamfield or Port Alberni at this time, but has asked non-residents to stay away from Bamfield, an unincorporated community with about 300 year-round residents, to avoid putting more pressure on the community.
