Crews have made enough headway on the wildfire in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve that the status of the blaze has been downgraded to “being held.”
BC Wildfire Service changed the status Friday morning from “out of control,” which had marked the Mount Seymour fire since it broke out Wednesday afternoon.
“The meaning of held is the wildfire is not likely to spread beyond predetermined boundaries under prevailing conditions,” said Brant Arnold-Smith, program manager of security and emergency preparedness with Metro Vancouver. “It's a great stage to be in as we move to the mop up stage. It's taken us a bit to get there, but very happy to be at that stage now.”
Crews have set up what’s called a wet line around the 0.3 hectare site of the fire, where a perimeter of hoses soak the ground so there will be no spread from the area from any smouldering or hotspots, Arnold-Smith added.
At the fire site, there are still hotspots, “but they’re few and far between,” he said. Very little smoke was rising from the area on Friday.
Currently, ground crews are being supported by one helicopter, which is bucketing water to bladders used by the firefighters on foot, and flying in supplies to the crews via longline.
Mount Seymour wildfire could move to patrol phase by early next week
Arnold-Smith said he expects crews to be in place for the next two to three days to mop up the site and get the fire completely out. If all goes well, efforts will move to the patrol stage by early next week.
According to BC Wildfire Service, the suspected cause is now “human.”
So far, early assessments by Metro Vancouver-led crews haven’t found any evidence to suggest a human cause, Arnold-Smith said. “We will have an investigator on Monday to do a real thorough assessment and be looking at some of the fire debris and fire burn behaviour as well. So we hope to have something more concrete based on evidence.”
Throughout their efforts, crews at the remote Seymour site have taken care to fell dangerous trees and take other safety measures, but the death of a 19-year-old BC Wildfire Service crew member fighting a blaze near Revelstoke this week underscores how dangerous the work can be.
“On behalf of Metro Vancouver, our thoughts go out to the BC Wildfire Service team members that were affected by this tragic loss,” Arnold-Smith said. “As I've said in multiple press conferences over the past few days, this is very dangerous work. And we always try to put huge emphasis on the safety of our personnel.”
“Very tough news. Teams are affected by it,” he said.
One thing Arnold-Smith said has been motivating staff this week is the outpouring of support from the public.
“It’s been a long couple of days for the teams in the field, and seeing the positive comments on social media and the community support has really helped.”
