Steep slopes and danger trees are making firefighting difficult for crews battling the forest fire above Sechelt, which grew to 40 hectares (99 acres) overnight Friday, according to the Coastal Fire Centre.
“When a fire moves through an area, it destabilizes the trees as it burns through the roots and branches and what not, so it makes the going a little slow,” fire information officer Donna MacPherson said Saturday. “They have to fell the trees that are dangerous to the crews before the crews can get in to work on it. So it’s going to be a slow pull for a little bit.”
Though crews were making “pretty good progress” on containing the fire, it could not be classified as contained as of 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, MacPherson said.
“There’s a road system around a large part of the fire and it hasn’t moved beyond that road system,” she said.
“What the crews are doing is removing the fuel in between the road and the fire itself and what that does is it will lower the fire behaviour if the fire approaches the road. That’s when they’ll start to call containment, when they get that work complete.”
The Coastal Fire Centre has deployed two helicopters, two air tankers, 26 firefighters, two excavators, three officers and four tree fallers to fight the fire since it began on Thursday afternoon.
Evacuation alerts were delivered Friday to Carlson Point residents. A total of 18 homes are affected.
In an update issued just before noon Saturday, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) emergency preparedness coordinator Bill Elsner said the fire had increased in size to 65 hectares (161 acres).
“The calm winds overnight helped somewhat,” Elsner said. “The onshore winds are currently moving smoke up the inlet away from town.”
BC Emergency Health Services had a significant spike in smoke-related respiratory distress calls Friday and Sechelt Hospital is at capacity, he said.
The SCRD has set up a public information line at 604-885-6800 to divert inquiries away from the Coastal Fire Centre, which is managing the firefighting response. The line will be staffed for at least 24 hours and will provide callers with information on the Carlson Point evacuation alert and the fire situation in general, Elsner said in a 2:38 p.m. update.
Meanwhile, community members have been taking to social media to express their gratitude to the men and women battling the blaze, and MacPherson said comments directed to the BC Forest Fire Info Facebook page would be appreciated.
“If people want to log on and thank the crews, that would be awesome because I know they do look at it and their families look at it as well,” she said.
– With files from John Gleeson
