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The Regional District of Nanaimo has issued a new evacuation alert for properties near the Wesley Ridge wildfire on Vancouver Island.
The latest alert, which adds to an existing one and means residents are expected to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, affects addresses on three roads in the area.
The Wesley Ridge fire was discovered Thursday, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), and is burning on the north banks of Cameron Lake, about 50 kilometres northwest of Nanaimo, B.C.
The regional district said it would update the public with the new number of affected properties in a news conference before noon on Tuesday.
On Monday, the district said 387 properties were affected by an evacuation order, which requires residents to leave immediately. Another 235 properties, not including the new alert issued late Monday, were affected by an evacuation alert.
According to the last update from the wildfire service on Monday morning, the Wesley Ridge fire remained at 511 hectares in size.
Rory Colwell, fire behaviour analyst with BCWS, said in a communications video Monday that the area shows evidence of drought.
He said the “build up index” of fuels that are available to burn is about 150 per cent of what would be normal at this time of year.
“You can see how dry and crunchy the ground is,” Colwell said. “Some of the logs … are showing as low as 10 or 12 per cent moisture content — and kiln-dry lumber is about eight per cent.”
“We’re getting full consumption of this, and it’s causing the fuels and the fire to spread in areas and in ways that we wouldn’t normally see.”
At a news conference Monday, fire information officer Madison Dahl stressed the need for rain.
“We are not having soaring temperatures, and we are expecting a little bit of precipitation, but we are still seeing very dry conditions here on the coast and on Vancouver Island,” she said.
“It is going to take a lot of rain to be able to substantially lower the fire behaviour that we are seeing.”
Dahl also said BCWS aircraft need space to safely and quickly collect water to fight the fire, and asked boaters to respect that.
“If there are aircraft nearby, move to the shore. Stay out of their way,” she said.
Smoke from the wildfire is expected to cause poor air quality and reduced visibility around the central east of Vancouver Island, according to the Government of Canada’s weather information .
The Wesley Ridge fire is suspected to be human-caused, a categorization given to any wildfire not sparked by lightning.
More than 130 wildfires are burning across B.C.
