Fifty-eight properties were quickly evacuated near Monte Lake Wednesday night after a wildfire ignited near Highway 97 and tore up the mountainside. But BC Wildfire has no news on whether any structures have been lost to the 150-hectare blaze.
The Martin Mountain wildfire started across the highway from Renee Wear’s house on Monte Lake Road.
“We came home around 5 p.m. and it was really on it’s way, well on it’s way. It was just a glow of red, ” she said. Her family stayed at the house until about 10:30 p.m. before heading to Falkland and then returning Thursday morning.
“It was just too red. If the wind came up, we would have been in trouble. We came back to check things out. It’s not looking too bad. We were very lucky.”
The fire was estimated at 30 hectares shortly after 5 p.m. on Wednesday and had grown to 150 hectares by Thursday morning.
Forty-six properties remain on evacuation alert but no new orders have been issued Thursday. Highway 97 has re-opened to single-lane traffic.
The cause of the fire is under investigation but residents and witnesses are speculating it was ignited by a tossed cigarette. Fire information officer Max Birkner said the BC Wildfire Service has yet to determine a point of origin.
In a media conference with the province on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for the province responded to the cigarette allegations by saying the investigation is ongoing.
It was noted that the fire appears to have been started very close to the highway, but investigators have not officially confirmed anything just yet.
Birkner said the flames moved rather quickly eastward, threatening multiple houses, travelling over the mountain and slightly northward, where BC Wildfire put a robust retardant guard in using air tankers. The fire is burning into the bush on the east side of Martin Mountain.
“There very well may be structures threatened out there," Birkner said. "Yesterday there was certainly structured threatened."
Thirty-one firefighters were on site overnight, with crews changing over Thursday morning. Multiple skimmer air craft were on site Thursday morning. Birkner said the planes are CL215s from Alberta and are capable of skimming 6,000 litres of water in 12 seconds.
For the latest on evacuation orders and alerts, visit the TNRD website.
