Hot, dry conditions and light winds are contributing to an increase in fire sizes and smoke throughout the Peace Region.

Today, very smoky conditions prevailed as a shift in wind blew smoke from the Halfway River fire located 30 kilometres northeast of Hudson’s Hope into the communities and area surrounding Hudson’s Hope and the Halfway River First Nations. The fire has not moved closer to either community. However, it did see growth to the northwest. Crews continue to work on dozer guard on the southwest flank.

Additional growth was observed on the Siphon Creek fire in the northwestern and eastern flanks. Crews are working to establish containment lines and looking for opportunities to conduct burn-off operations.

The Beatton Airport fire has seen more active fire behaviour today, which is also contributing to the smoky conditions throughout the region. Firefighting efforts are ongoing at both fires. 

Weather will continue to be hot and sunny with very low relative humidity today, but winds are expected to shift again tomorrow. Winds are expected to be 30 kilometres per hour west to southwest gusting up to 60 kilometres per hour. This will likely result in increased fire behaviour and potentially increased fire growth.

For information on evacuation orders and alerts in the Peace River Regional District, visit: http://prrd.bc.ca/ or call 250 784-4838.

For up-to-date information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air quality advisories, visit: www.bcwildfire.ca or call 1 888 3-FOREST.

For more information about a specific fire including media contacts, please visit the Wildfire of Note link on the website.

You can follow the latest wildfire news on:

• Twitter at: http://twitter.com/BCGovFireInfo
• Facebook at: http://facebook.com/BCForestFireInfo