The fire size was aerial mapped yesterday (July 18th) at 2,058 hectares. This change in size is attributed to the growth that occurred in the afternoon of July 17th, upslope on the west flank of the fire.
A warming and drying trend is expected to persist throughout the week. With less cloud cover, sunny weather and temperatures warming up more quickly throughout the day, relative humidity's will be lower than over the weekend and fuels will continue to dry out. This is expected to contribute to increased fire behaviour and fire activity, creating potentially volatile conditions during peak burning times.
Winds yesterday afternoon were challenging, gusting up to 60 km/hr on site but the containment lines the crews have been building on the south, east and north flanks held up well against these gusts.
The contingency line the crews have been working to build was completed yesterday as they reached the scree slope and have used this natural feature to tie their line into. The fire perimeter along this line has burned quite patchy and uneven. Today the crew will continue mop up along this line and will be extinguishing hot spots and smokes up to 50 ft in from the perimeter.
A portion of the southern corner on the west flank was more active yesterday afternoon. Helicopters will be bucketing on this area today and a line locator has been brought in to assess the feasibility of equipment working in this area.
The crews working along the Stein Valley walking path made great progress putting with the hose lay and establishing a sprinkler system yesterday. That work will continue today as crews extend the hose lay and sprinkler line further up the walking path.
Work will also continue on the spot fire that was found on the morning of July 17th near the start of the Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park walking trail. By end of the daytime operational period yesterday crews had extinguished a majority of the smokes found throughout the day. Crews will continue to patrol and extinguish any smokes and hot spots that pop throughout the day as temperatures warm up.
A coordinated approach in the response and protection of the Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Park will continue to be a priority for Lytton First Nation, BC Parks and the BC Wildfire Service.
A representative from Lytton First Nation that specializes in archeological site and cultural values is working with structure protection specialists and BCWS crews to identify cultural values along the beginning of the Stein Valley walking path and will be providing guidance and recommendations on the best options for protection of those values.
Along the east flank Lytton First Nation crews will continue to extinguish pockets of heat and smokes found during their mop up and patrol efforts around structures within the fire’s vicinity.
The crews working on the north flank will carry on with their progress made yesterday. One of the unit crews is continuing with guard construction up a steep mountain ridge on the northern flank. Another unit crew will begin constructing the contingency line that was scouted yesterday. The new location for the contingency line is closer to the head of the north flank and will tie into a cliff feature.
While the south, east and north flanks of the fire are currently exhibiting minimal fire activity, the western flank remains active, but much of the terrain is steep and inoperable.
Helicopters provided bucketing support throughout the day and continue to have good success on both the north and south flanks, allowing crews to safely continue directly attacking the wildfire.
Helipads continue to provide support in moving crew and equipment around the fire.
Structure protection assessment and triaging remains ongoing.
This incident is classified as Out of Control. Learn more about stages of control here.
The Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park is closed. More information is available here.
Currently, there are no impacts to Highway 1 or Highway 12. The Lytton Ferry is closed in both directions. Please check DriveBC for updates here