A new wildfire discovered burning near Boston Bar, B.C., on Tuesday more than quadrupled in size overnight.
Last logged at 10 square kilometres (1,000 hectares) Tuesday night, the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) estimated the fire had grown to 43.3 sq. km (4,332 ha) as of Wednesday morning.
The wildfire service said the Anderson Creek fire started beside Highway 1, just south of Boston Bar, and “spread rapidly upslope.”
“Aggressive fire behaviour (fast-moving crown fire) continued into the night,” BCWS said in a response update.
The Anderson Creek fire joins a wildfire complex already burning in the area, on either side of the Fraser River. The Brunswick Creek and Ainslie Creek wildfires together spanned an area of about 218 square kilometres (21,888.6 hectares) as of Wednesday, according to BCWS.
The service said crews expect “another challenging day” Wednesday due to hot and very dry conditions.
It said fire behaviour and steep terrain on the Brunswick Creek wildfire made direct attack unsafe for ground crews on Tuesday. Tactics are being “reassessed” while structure crews engage in structure defence.
“Even light winds will increase fire activity and change fire behaviour rapidly, particularly in unburnt areas within the perimeter and where challenging terrain has limited suppression options,” said the BCWS.
All three fires are suspected to be human-caused, which is how any wildfire not sparked by lightning is categorized.
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Remaining Boston Bar residents ordered to ‘leave now’ due to new, fast-moving fire
The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD), which had previously issued an evacuation order for Boston Bar, sent an urgent alert Tuesday ordering any residents remaining in the community to leave immediately.
CBC News has reached out to the regional district for comment.
Highway 1 is closed in both directions between Anderson River Mainline and Jackass Summit for 41.2 kilometres due to the wildfires, according to DriveBC.
Highway 5 should be used as an alternate route, DriveBC said.
There are about 90 wildfires burning across B.C. as of Wednesday morning.
