Back-Burning Operations Continue as White Rock Lake Wildfire Rages in British Columbia

Firefighters in British Columbia worked to gain the upper hand on the vast White Rock Lake Fire on Tuesday, August 24, using planned ignition operations to control the fire’s perimeter, BC Wildfire Service said. As of Wednesday, the White Rock Lake Fire was 81,300 hectares (314 square miles) in size. Footage shared by the BC Wildfire Service shows planned ignition operations Tuesday. The service said on Facebook that successful efforts Tuesday were “critical” to gaining containment in areas of the fire’s perimeter “that are inoperable and unsafe for ground crews and heavy equipment to work.” “These operations remove fuels that would otherwise burn at a high intensity and instead allow fire management personnel to bring the fire down to pre-established control lines on their terms when conditions are favorable to a relatively low intensity understory fire, with very little tree mortality,” the wildfire service explained in the Facebook post. The successful “small-scale” ground and aerial ignition missions Tuesday took place along the northeastern flank of the fire’s perimeter, north of Newport Beach, officials said. Crews would work on the fire perimeter near Terrace Mountain and above Shorts Creek on Wednesday, officials wrote. Credit: BC Wildfire Service via Storyful

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