Although winds have picked up today and the biggest concern is the northern edge of the Mount Underwood wildfire south of Port Alberni, the city is not currently threatened, according to an update from the BC Wildfire Service.
Over 2,000 hectares in size, the wildfire service is expecting the blaze to continue to grow two days after it was first spotted on Aug. 11.
Karley Desrosiers, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said that 64 personnel are currently working on the ground to mitigate Mount Underwood’s spread, with heavy equipment helping to give then access and build a fire guard.
“Along the north flank crews are working to establish a guard, working from the west to the east,” she said, noting that the focus is the northwest corner, which is the section of the wildfire closest to Port Alberni. “The community of Port Alberni is not currently threatened by this wildfire, and neither are the Bamfield and Youbou areas either.”
After it first emerged at about 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 11, a southerly wind rapidly spread the blaze over the slope’s dry forest. But on Wednesday wind conditions changed. This behaviour can push a smoldering on the forest floor to trees, allowing the flames to climb up and ignite the forest canopy, spreading embers hundreds of metres forward.
“Today we’ve seen a shift in the wind, the wind is pushing from the south to the north, which is why crews are focused heavily on that northern flank,” said Desrosiers.
Using night vision technology, helicopters worked through the night on Mount Underwood to slow its spread. An air tanker is ready, but the wildfire’s conditions might not allow this to be effective, explained Desrosiers as smoke filled the sky above the Alberni Inlet.
“When it’s too smokey they are unable to fly,” she said. “With the aggressive behaviour that we experienced when this fire started and have the potential to experience this afternoon, the fire may be just too aggressive for tankers to be effective.”
Mount Underwood grew 600 hectares over its first few hours – an unusually aggressive spread for a wildfire on Vancouver Island.
“It’s not common to have wildfires in the thousands of hectares on Vancouver Island, but we can attribute that to the drought,” said Desrosiers.
A significant amount of rain is forecasted to begin Thursday afternoon, continuing through the weekend. But the wildfire service is not counting on this to stop the largest forest fire that Vancouver Island has seen in years.
“The forecast often overpredicts the rain that we receive,” said Desrosiers. “It would take a significant amount of rain over a longer period to really penetrate the ground and to extinguish the fire that’s burning deep in the ground.”
Although the fire started on the slope overlooking the China Creek Campground and Marina, not structural damage has been reported from the spread of the blaze.
Mount Underwood is suspected to be human caused, as there was no lighting observed in the area.
