BC Parks has decided to let the East Redonda Island wildfire burn, according to BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) communication assistant, Dorthe Jakobsen.
The fire continues to burn out of control and, as of August 28, had grown to 45 hectares. The Wildfire Service said human activity is the suspected cause.
East Redonda is 40 kilometres northwest of Powell River, between Homfray Channel and Pendrell Sound, at the entrance to Toba Inlet.
The island is a conservation area principally for forestry research in first and second growth forest stands.
“The Pendrell Sound fire is a modified response fire because it's in the ecological reserve,” said Jakobsen.
In such a situation, BC Parks decides the course of action to take, according to Jakobsen.
“They have objectives for their ecological reserve so we respect those objectives,” she said.
BC Parks would rather have the fire burn than have BCWS fight it with big equipment and control lines because it would open access to the reserve, according to Jakobsen.
“Their management goal here is to allow this fire to burn,” said Jakobsen.
A shoreline fire on the east coast of East Redonda Island was first reported on Friday, August 24. A crew of five was sent in and spent the day establishing a control line before being taken off the site.
“We’ve built a control line and we also have identified what we call trigger points,” said Jakobsen. She explained trigger points as geographic locations that are monitored daily.
“We watch it,” said Jakobsen. “We monitor it daily and we watch it very carefully and if the trigger points are breached then we start talking about doing something different.”
Currently, the fire is a long way from the control line and trigger points.
