FORT ST. JOHN — A forest fire is not an even-handed force of nature. From the perspective of an Airbus 350 helicopter, the Beatton Airport Road fire emerges as a patchwork quilt, as diverse as farm crops across a flat landscape.
Some patches of black spruce and aspen are scorched black, the forest razed. In others areas, only the ground cover is burned, leaving the upper branches untouched. And others still escaped the flames completely, remaining green and vibrant as though nothing had happened.
“You can see areas where the trees have no limbs or needles,” Ryan Chapman, operations manager for the B.C. Wildfire Service, explains over the helicopter’s headphones. “They’ve been burned clean. The fire moved with intensity through there.”
The Beatton Airport Road fire is B.C.’s first major wildfire this year to pose a risk to a major community, prompting the Peace River Regional District to issue an evacuation order applying to 130 properties. Several oil-patch installations are also located within the fire area.
The mosaic of fire damage puts the lie to suggestions that large industrial clearcuts of B.C.’s northern forests mimic the natural disturbance of a wildfire.
“What’s been unique with this fire is that we’ve seen aspen burn,” Chapman continues. “In a lot of situations, it can provide a fuel break. But under these dry conditions, we’ve seen aspen burn to levels we don’t normally see.”
This wildfire has proven especially stubborn to put out. “This fire has been a real challenge for everyone involved,” he said. “The north is extremely dry this year.”
Since the blaze began a month ago, there have been wet spells, but the dryness returned only a couple of days later.
“If we get a lot of rain, that will give us a few days,” he continued. “If we only get a trace, that might only give us a day’s reprieve. The rain won’t put the fire out.”
Chapman emphasized that the attack on the fire about 45 kilometres north of Fort St. John will continue full-bore despite a change to cooler, wet weather.
“We still need to be diligent,” he said. “All our crews are still going to be extremely busy. … So when it dries out again, and we know it will, we don’t have heat adjacent to unburned fuel on the fire line.”
Extreme winds have also posed a challenge, he added.
On Thursday, officials estimated the fire at 15,460 hectares — about 40 times the size of Stanley Park. The effort involves 182 firefighters, three helicopters and 18 pieces of heavy equipment.
The Peace River Regional District lifted its evacuation ordered on Wednesday. The blaze destroyed one structure on the Alaska Highway.
Firefighters typically work 12 to 14 hour days for two weeks, then get three days off.
Maclean Strosher of Cranbrook has been fighting fires for five years. “The fire has died down, allowing us to put in containment lines,” he said. “With the predicted weather, we should be able to get in there and do what we can — bodies with chain saws, putting hoses in there.”
He described firefighting as a rewarding job. “The people here love what they do. We come back year after year. It gives us a real sense of purpose.”
Chapman emphasized that while helicopters help to control the fire, only firefighters working on the ground can put it out.
About 65 per cent of the fire is contained, which means there is an expectation that two-thirds of the perimeter of the fire won’t get worse. Crews have established fire guards and conducted controlled burns, in some case putting out fires they started the same day to control the wildfire.
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