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Wildfire near Gold River sends plume of smoke over community

Fire growing, but no threat to critical infrastructure or human lives — Coastal Fire Centre
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Smoke from the Heber River fire is seen rising over Highway 28 near Crest Lake. Photo courtesy David Burgis

A wildfire burning near Gold River has sent up a plume of smoke in the area, after growing to 120 hectares.

The Coastal Fire Centre has upgraded their response from “Monitored” to “Active.”

“That had been a monitored fire, because it had been burning in quite steep and inaccessible terrain,” said Julia Caranci, a Fire Information Officer with the Coastal Fire Centre. “When we’re monitoring a fire, we set up a sort of box around it that establishes what are called trigger points. If the fire comes close enough to one of those trigger points, then we will action the fire.

“In this case, the fire is moving towards one of our pre-identified trigger points. The trigger point was there to establish some timber values in the area. The fire has also moved to a place that is more accessible, terrain-wise. We’re going to action that part of the fire now.”

A 20 person crew is en route to the fire to ensure it does not spread further.

Though the fire is growing, it is growing away from the community of Gold River, which is about 8.5 km away from the near edge.

”That’s a significant distance away,” Caranci said. “There’s no critical infrastructure or human life at risk at this time. It’s fair to say that since there was some growth on the fire, people will be seeing smoke.

“If anything were to change, we’ll let people know about that,” she said.

Smoke was visible as far away as Campbell River on Wednesday morning.

With rain in the forecast for Friday and cooler, longer nights, Caranci says that the worst of the fire season is “behind us now.”

The Coastal Fire Centre lifted its restriction on recreational fires as of Tuesday (Sept. 20) at noon.

RELATED: Campfire prohibition lifted for the Coastal Fire Centre

Recreational fire ban rescinded for Campbell River



marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com

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Marc Kitteringham

About the Author: Marc Kitteringham

I joined Campbell River Mirror in early 2020, writing about the environment, housing, local government and more.
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