Smoke from the Cisco Road Wildfire is still highly visible in the Lytton area.
Image Credit: B.C. Wildfire
June 19, 2015 - 10:32 AM
LYTTON - A week-old wildfire near Lytton has grown to nearly 1,900 hectares but is now 35 per cent contained.
The Cisco Road fire was discovered on June 11 at 150 ha. By the end of the day it had grown to 1,300 ha and was threatening properties. Evacuation alerts and orders were put into place on Lytton First Nations properties. The orders were downgraded to alerts in the early afternoon on Friday, June 19.
Crews held the line on the fire from that point but controlled burns the last couple of days have seen the fire grow to about 1,885 ha. Controlled burns are being used to keep the fire from spreading and to make the area safer for firefighters to work in.
With about 200 personnel on site today, June 19, it is expected crews will continue to establish control lines and conduct small scale controlled burns. Helicopters and heavy equipment continue to assist ground crews.
The wildfire remains highly visible from Highway 1, Lytton and surrounding communities. Smoke from the fire is being carried as far as the Merritt, Kamloops and Vernon fire zones.
As of this morning the fire danger rating is listed as moderate to high in most parts of the fire centre, with pockets of extreme.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
— This story was updated at 2:53 p.m., June 19, 2015, to note a change in the evacuation order.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015