Hiking & biking locals help prevent wildfire spread west of Nanaimo Correctional Centre

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The wildfire was spotted near the Benson Creek Falls parking lot Sunday morning. (Image Credit: Submitted/Juli Dawn)

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Hiking & biking locals help prevent wildfire spread west of Nanaimo Correctional Centre

2h ago

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Graham phoned security for Mosaic Forestry Management, which he knew were the area property owners, and grabbed his five-gallon water backpack with a manual pump and began dousing the flames.

“The flames were 15 to 20 feet up in the tree. It was an old dead cedar tree, and I just started spraying, and any of the little flames which popped up on the ground, I sprayed those as well. And then Sam from BC Wildfire, he approached from the low side, so they’d been dispatched… one little tree can cause a whole forest to become second-hand firewood.”

A wildfire 0.009 hectares in size was discovered near the Doumont and Biggs Rd.’s intersection on Saturday, Aug 22. The service said the cause remains under investigation. (Image Credit: BC Wildfire Service)

Graham said he stuck around the scene until certified tree fallers arrived to assess the damaged tree.

“I’m just a guy who happened to see something out of the ordinary and decided to put my best effort there. The real people who should get recognition were the mountain bikers, because they were there first and they called BC Wildfire Service…who turned up to take over and do what I couldn’t do.”

The mid-Island and much of Coastal B.C. were treated to an intense lightning storm on Saturday evening into Sunday morning, with several small wildfires being sparked between Nanaimo and Victoria since then.

All were well below a hectare in size as of Monday morning, and the majority are being held or under control.

Graham said wildfire crews continued to douse the smouldering wood until a tree faller could get to the scene. (Image Credit: Submitted/Juli Dawn)

Coastal Fire Centre information officer Kimberly Kelly said the weekend lightning storm resulted in around 2,000 lightning strikes in their region, with a majority in the Fraser Valley, Sea-to-Sky corridor and on the south Island.

She added while lightning sparked several new fires on Vancouver Island, proactive deployment of resources to areas forecast to be hit helped douse flames early.

Still, fires may become visible in the coming days.

“That energy can go into the ground, and it may take some time for the fuels underground to be consumed and for us to see a bit of smoke coming out of the ground. What is in our benefit for this weather event is the cloud cover is now lifting, it gives really good opportunity for our aviation resources to do some reconnaissance for early detection of these holdover fires.”

She said roughly 40 per cent of all fires in B.C. are reported by the general public, meaning those in the backcountry play a vital role in early attack of fire starts.

Accompanying rain from the weekend storm system helped prevent further fire spread, Kelly said, however fire danger ratings remain high.

“We have been in an extended season of drought, and therefore, we don’t have those continuous soaking rains getting into the deeper layers of the ground and really reducing the fire danger activity in a significant way.”

He said this incident was a good reminder that what initially looks like a relatively small amount of smoke can turn into a big problem very quickly. (Image Credit: Submitted/Juli Dawn)

— with files from Alex Rawnsley

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