The Regional District of East Kootenay has placed nine properties in the Palliser River/Cross River on Evacuation ORDER with the Raven’s Head fire burning out of control southeast of Invermere.
Included in the order: the Nipika Mountain Resort and Cross River Education & Retreat Centre on Settler’s Road.
At last check, the fire has ballooned to just over 4700 hectares.
An evacuation ORDER is also now in place for four properties in the Whiteswan Lake area as well as the Home Basin and Inlet Creek campgrounds as the Mount Morro wildfire continues to grow.
The updated estimate of the blaze is now at 11,382 hectares or a little over 113 square kilometres.
The Mount McMillan Fire, well north of Kimberley, is pegged at 596 hectares, while the Bradford Creek fire is at just over 29 hectares.
The Island Pond fire south of Canal Flats still listed as Being Held at 37 hectares, as is the Brewer Ridge fire at less than a hectare.
With the exception of Highway 6 between Silverton and Slocan, due to the Aylwin and Komonko Creek fires, highways in our region remain opened Friday morning.
Highway 95 south of Golden was re-opened Thursday afternoon.
The caveat, though, is conditions could change on a dime, depending on the behaviour of the Dogtooth Forest Service Road blaze nearby.
Just how successful fire crews are with getting the upper hand now being determined, not on the heat, but the wind.
The forecast from Environment Canada for the next 48 hours could things make things a little more difficult.
Today’s forecast is predicting southwest winds of 20 kilometres-an-hour, but gusting, at times, to 40 kilometres-an-hour.
Meantime, a Special Air Quality Statement remains in place for much of southern BC including the East Kootenay, Elk Valley, Columbia Valley and Kootenay Lake – one of the influences, the changing wind conditions.
In the statement, Environment Canada warns the fine particles in wildfire smoke pose the main health risk, and as smoke levels increase so, too, do the health risks.
It’s worth mentioning, too, for those heading for the great outdoors this weekend, there’s still a Category 1 fire ban, which includes campfires.
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