Gosh, Who Knew File #5,187 - 143 Fires Now Roaring Through British Columbia's Beetle-Killed Forests
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Today, another big fire near the Chelaslie River is burning about 75 kilometres south of his home. The blaze has already consumed 50,000 hectares, more than 120 times the size of Stanley Park. It was one of 143 fires burning Sunday in British Columbia.
Robertson said huge plumes of smoke were visible from the Chelaslie fire, which was making local residents nervous, including those from the Cheslatta Carrier Nation. “It’s scary for anybody in these beetle stands. It’s so unpredictable and it can go so fast,” said Robertson, a policy adviser for the Cheslatta.
Once attacked and killed by the beetle, the needles of pine trees turn red, falling off in one to three years. They leave behind a grey, crackling-dry tree. “It’s skeletons of trees out there, but boy when they light up they can run. It’s a very intense fire,” Robertson said.
Most of the province, including in north-central B.C., where the Chelaslie fire is burning, received welcome relief from rain and cooler temperatures this weekend. As a result of the wet weather, some evacuation orders have been downgraded to alert status, including on the Smith Creek fire in West Kelowna. An evacuation order in the Chelaslie fire area remains in place for cabin-owners and campers, where 41 firefighters are battling the blaze. However, the hot and dry weather is expected to return by the end of this week, noted B.C. Wildfire Management Branch spokeswoman Navi Saini.
The dead and dying pine trees hit by the beetle epidemic — which peaked in about 2006 — cover more than 16 million hectares of forest. The area, five times the size of Vancouver Island, straddles the Interior but also stretches into the northeast and Okanagan.
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http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Fires+through+tinder+pine+beetle+killed+forests/10047293/story.html
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