A fire was spotted on Aug. 28 north of Merritt near Peter Hope Lake.
“The Peter Hope wildfire, identified as K61456, is about 40km northeast of Merritt, adjacent to Highway 5A,” said Kamloops Fire Centre Fire Information Officer, Gagan Lidhran.
The fire, initially estimated to be 0.01 hectares, saw significant growth overnight, being more accurately mapped at 6 hectares on Aug. 29. Crews are still on site, but the status of the fire is now listed as Under Control.
“It’s estimated at 6.0 hectares, we have 11 personnel on site, and they’re patrolling for hot spots at this point,” said Lidhran.
“It’s basically a smouldering ground fire, there’s not a lot of active flames anymore. There is no equipment at this time, from what I’ve been told, and to my knowledge there is no air support at this time. The reason why that is, is because the status is now changed to ‘Under Control’. What that means is, the fire has received sufficient suppression action to ensure no further spread, so that’s likely why we don’t have any other support at this point, crews are just patrolling. It’s mostly a smouldering ground fire so we don’t need any air support to help suppress any of the inner ground layers, that’s mostly done with work on the ground fire crews.”
No structures are threatened by the fire, which BC Wildfire crews worked to knock down quickly. Lidhran notes that the four stages of a fire are generally, Out of Control, Being Held, Under Control and Out.
“It’s already in the final stages and crews are just patrolling for left over hot spots and any type of smoldering ground fire that they could work on,” explained Lidhran.
“So, at this point crews have made pretty good progress on the fire.”
The cause of the fire is currently undetermined.
