United States crews joining Donnie Creek firefighting

23 June 2023

Published by: https://energeticcity.ca

CANADA – An American hotshot crew of approximately 20 people arrived on Wednesday to assist on the record-breaking Donnie Creek wildfire, with another team arriving Thursday.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — An American hotshot crew of approximately 20 people arrived on Wednesday to assist on the record-breaking Donnie Creek wildfire, with another team arriving Thursday.

This is the first set of American crews to arrive at the Donnie Creek Complex, while the South Peace Complex saw an incident management team arrive from the United States on Tuesday.

Fire information officer for the Donnie Creek Complex, Marg Drysdale, said the team that recently arrived has been briefed and started working on the fire Wednesday afternoon.

“We are very fortunate to get some assistance,” Drysdale said.

“We are in the third week of June, and this is the fourth deployment that’s been on Donnie Creek. We do a two-week deployment. This has been an ongoing situation, so the assistance is welcome.”

The fire information officer said, with the weather is heating up on Wednesday, and the winds shifting, a change in fire behaviour is expected over the next few days.

“There’s a slight risk of an afternoon shower, but we’re not gonna be seeing the kind of rain that we’ve seen previously, so this area is gonna continue to heat up with very little precipitation.”

On Wednesday, 172 firefighters, 14 helicopters, 38 pieces of heavy equipment and 31 structural personnel are working on the Donnie Creek wildfire.

Drysdale said crews are finishing up near Trutch, and the containment line is holding very well.

“Crews are continuing work in the Beatton Creek area heading east, they’re putting in machine guards, and that work will continue for the next couple of days,” Drysdale said.

A guard is a wide path or dirt road where all fuel is removed and can be achieved by hand or machinery for larger guards, also known as a control line.

The Donnie Creek wildfire is approximately 553,947 hectares.

BC Wildfire Service said it may be winter before the fire is out.

With a perimeter of more than 900 kilometres, the fire is burning across a remote area about 160 kilometres north of Fort St. John, where the forests and vegetation are thick and numerous roads are only available in the winter, said Mark Healey, an incident commander with the BCWS.

He says those factors add to the challenge of ensuring the safety of more than 250 wildfire service personnel currently assigned to the blaze.

The service is using controlled burns to steer the fire toward rivers, lakes, areas that have burned in previous years, or patches of deciduous trees that are less flammable than the conifers prevalent throughout the boreal forest, Healey said.

“We use our planned ignitions to bring the fire to somewhere on our terms, rather than have that happen with a wind event or as the forest dries out.”

Instead of striving to extinguish the vast blaze, the BC Wildfire Service is focused on protecting homes and infrastructure, while letting other areas burn.

Around homes, communications towers and other infrastructure, including gas-industry operations, Healey says, “that’s where we’re actively fighting the fire.”

An update from the wildfire service says tackling such a large blaze means “monitoring” the fire where it’s not threatening communities and infrastructure.

The service says it expects the Donnie Creek blaze will burn into the fall, before possible extinguishment in winter. It could also continue smouldering, only to re-emerge next spring.

That usually occurs where there’s a thick layer of “duff” or decaying needles, leaves and other woody debris coating the forest floor, it says.

The Donnie Creek blaze accounts for more than 60 per cent of nearly 8,700 square kilometres of land charred by wildfires in B.C. since April 1st. That dwarfs the 20-year average of about 162 square kilometres for the same time of year.

The lightning-caused fire that was discovered on May 12 grew as it overtook six smaller blazes that added to its record-breaking size, the wildfire service says.

The Peace River Regional District rescinded evacuation orders for the area on Sunday and Monday, but some evacuation alerts remain in place. An area restriction is also still in place around the wildfire.

The other fires in the Donnie Creek Complex, the Klua Lakes and the Muskwa River wildfires, are still out of control and being monitored.

The Klua Lakes wildfire is still about 37,869 hectares, and the Muskwa River is 22,413 hectares.

The East Pine River wildfire and the two wildfires discovered southeast of Donnie Creek on Tuesday have been extinguished.

The Tooga Creek wildfire is about 36,295 hectares, and an evacuation alertremains for the area.

There are 21 active wildfires in the Prince George Fire Centre.

The special air quality statement issued in northeastern B.C. was reissued Tuesday morning.

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