Western Canada Wildlife Season Comes Early with Explosive Parker Lake Fire

High winds which blew down a tree across power lines are also contributing to the rapid spread of British Columbia’s first wildfire of the spring.

Because of the rural area where it started, the exact time the Parker Lake Fire began is unclear. What is known at this point is that it was burning in full force as of late afternoon on May 10, with the cause being strong winds which knocked over trees across power lines. Once down, the lines sparked, and the dry brush converted quickly into kindling.

The fire started on the southern edge of Parker Lake, B.C., about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, 540 km (335 miles) north of Prince George, B.C., and 12 km (7.5 miles) due west of Fort Nelson. Fort Nelson is part of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM). It is located along the Alaska Highway in the Northern Rocky Mountains area, not far from the border it shares with the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. Fort Nelson is also home to Fort Nelson First Nation.

The fire was first spotted at 5:25 PM Mountain time, the local time for this region, on May 10. At the time the fire was relatively small, covering just 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles).

Once the fire was confirmed, NRRM Mayor Rob Fraser said his firefighting team moved as quickly as possible to reach it, but the remote location and the challenging terrain to get there delayed them significantly.

“And then by the time our firefighters were able to get down there,” he said, “the wind had whipped this up into a fire that they weren't able to handle with the apparatus that we had.”

Estimates at the time were that the region around the fire was experiencing wind gusts up to 70 km/hour (27 mph). They were more than enough to help fuel the fire with oxygen and push it up and out of the area where it started.

As darkness fell, the British Columbia Wildfire Service (BCWS) said the Parker Lake blaze was “highly visible”, and already demonstrating high-risk “extreme fire behavior”.

Later that night, even as fire conditions seemed to have eased temporarily, the NRRM declared a state of local emergency and its mayor issued an order at 7:30 PM to evacuate the first 3,000 people from the affected area.

The announcement came on a social media post, saying that, “Residents are advised to evacuate the area immediately and begin driving south towards Fort St. John. If you have a recreational vehicle, or your own vehicle, fuel stations are being planned along the route south.”

"If you know of and have the ability to take additional passengers who may need assistance or transportation, please consider doing so."

The Royal Canadian Mountain Police assisted some with their evacuations and are continuing to do so.

Authorities say most people cooperated, though some located on the opposite side of the local river from the fire chose to remain in place.

In addition to the voluntary evacuations, the Northern Health Authority moved to close Fort Nelson General Hospital?for the time being. It began evacuating all patients to facilities in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek, located 381 km (237 miles) and 453 km (252 miles), respectively, away from Fort Nelson.

Other emergency precautions also went into effect almost immediately, especially since the fire was still not under control and forecasts said the high winds would continue through the weekend.

Fort Nelson First Nation Chief Sharleen Gale said local transfers of natural gas into Fort Nelson and nearby had been slowed to avoid further problems. That affects heating and cooking for the residents there. It will also mean electrical power will soon cut off in areas served by the natural gas driven electrical power plants present.

By 10 PM on that first day, the BCWS said ground crews were now present throughout the fire-struck area, building fire breaks and attending to smaller sections of the fire. Nine helicopters were also on the scene dropping water on the larger sections of the fire as strategically as possible.

By the morning of May 11 at 9 AM, the fire had quadrupled to 16.9 square kilometers (6.5 square miles). The same day at 5 PM, as it was becoming clear the fire was still spreading fast, the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC)?issued an expanded evacuation order. The directive covered the Parker Lake Fire plus the nearby smaller Nogah Creek and Patry Creek Fires.

The Nogah Creek and Patry Creek fires had no connection to the Parker Creek Fire, other than by proximity. Both are what is known in the wildfire trade as “sleeper” fires, fires which continue burning even after winter season comes and snow falls. They burn underground slowly through the winter, only to emerge again in the spring after the ice and snow above are mostly gone. These “sleeper” fires, which are becoming more common as the shallow underground parts of the planet remain far warmer than in the past, are also sometimes referred to as “zombie fires”.

Electrical power outages were also rampant as of this point. Telecommunications of all kinds, from land lines to mobile, and including internet, were also widely disrupted.

As the fire grew larger despite all attempts to stop it, BC Wildfire Service Director of Provincial Operations Cliff Champman issued a video warning on social media on the evening of May 12 that the situation was growing worse rather than better as of this time.

“The fuels are as dry as we have ever seen. The wind is going to be sustained, and it is going to push the fire toward the community,” he said.

He was joined in the video address by Fire Behavior Specialist Ben Boghean, also of the BCWS. In his comments, Boghean gave some insight as the root cause behind why the fire was moving so quickly and poses such a serious danger for the estimated 3,400 people who live in and around Fort Nelson.

“The next 48 hours will be extremely challenging for the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, given forecasted westerly winds and extreme dry and volatile fuels [in the forests] in the area,” he said.

“This region has experienced multiple years of drought, with a below-normal snowpack this past winter,” he continued. “As a result of this, our forests [in this zone] are very receptive to new fire conditions and a rapid risk of spread.”

First Nation Fort Nelson also issued its own formal evacuation area for the area on Sunday. It covered residents’ homes along with “many cultural sites”.

At 8:30 AM on May 13, a broader evacuation order associated with the Parker Lake Fire was issued for a region “Encompassing Highway 77 surrounding Fire #G90207 to the east past Kotcho Lake then to the South, surrounding Fire #G90228 west past Highway 97.”

“This includes 292 subdivisions and all properties south to North River Midstream gas plant,” the order said.

That order rang out as after now two-and-a-half days of fighting the fires they were still expanding and moving closer to Fort Nelson. Yesterday the total area covered by the fire had grown to 52.8 square kilometers (20.4 square miles), more than tripling again the size of the fire recorded on the night of May 10.

Fire management specialists are hoping that rain expected to enter the region in the next few days help slow and perhaps even bring to a halt the spread of the Parker Lake Fire.