The Bald Range wildfire near Summerland continues to grow in size.
It is now mapped at more than 17,800 hectares and expanded slightly further towards the Regional District of Central Okanagan boundary and the community of Peachland.
BC Wildfire Service indicated that clearer skies last night contributed to increased fire activity and fuels remain exceptionally dry and highly receptive to fire.
Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar said that as of Tuesday morning, there are more than 101 active fires in the province.
“This wildfire season, as of this morning, we have 904 wildfires impacting 390,000 hectares burned,” he said.
The attention continues to be on fighting the wildfires and what conditions are expected.
On Tuesday, officials are expecting a high potential for lightning-caused wildfire starts, particularly in the central Interior and the Okanagan, which are receiving limited precipitation and dry lightning. Elevated temperatures and heightened wind gusts will continue to linger in the Okanagan and southeastern regions of B.C., which can increase fire behaviour.
The service said that of particular concern are smaller fires located in steep terrain where wind and slope alignment can rapidly accelerate fire growth.
On Monday, the B.C. government put a ban in place for all off-road vehicles on Crown land.
“We do not take this decision lightly,” Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for the BC Wildfire Service, said.
“We understand that there is an inconvenience of making a decision of this magnitude on the land base, but as we have been discussing for weeks, the conditions are so extreme right now that we cannot afford another unintentional human-caused wildfire. So we will continue to monitor the conditions out there on the land base.”
