The wildfire located along Highway 4, mere kilometres away from Port Alberni may have done its worst, should conditions remain in firefighters’ favour.
On June 7th, the wildfire dubbed the ‘Cameron Bluffs’ fire was only 120 hectares and since that time, it has grown to 229 hectares as of this publication. Despite this, the BC Wildfire Service has now classified the blaze as ‘being held,’ rather than ‘out of control.’
“The Cameron Bluffs wildfire is now classified as Being Held,” said the BC Wildfire Service.
“At this stage, the wildfire is not likely to spread beyond predetermined boundaries under prevailing conditions.”
The BC Wildfire Service hit the fire with a full response since it was discovered on June 3rd, but due to the steep terrain of the blaze, firefighters had difficulty attacking certain parts of the wildfire.
108 firefighters are presently assigned to the Cameron Bluffs wildfire along with three helicopters equipped with buckets for dumping water from nearby Cameron Lake, there are four pieces of “heavy equipment” assisting with the effort and an incident management team is leading the fight against the fire.
“BC Wildfire Service personnel have completed danger tree falling on the north flank of the Cameron Bluffs wildfire, along the Highway 4 corridor,” said the BC Wildfire Service.
Highway 4 was shut down for the better part of this week, causing people to take a four-hour detour on logging roads to avoid the blaze.
The highway will be reopened in phases beginning on the weekend of June 24th and 25th, according to the province.
The highway closure has since taken a significant toll on all businesses and sectors of industry west of the wildfire.
Currently in BC there are 85 active wildfires and there are four on Vancouver Island.
A fire ban has been put into effect for all of the island and southwestern BC by the Coastal Fire Centre which includes Category 1, 2 and 3 fires. Campfires and fireworks are included in the current fire prohibition.
