Hot, dry May has Kamloops Fire Rescue on alert

KAMLOOPS – The first batch of Kamloops firefighters has returned to the Tournament Capital, after a week of fighting wildfires in northern B.C.

A bush truck and two crews of Kamloops Fire Rescue members have been deployed north of Fort St. John to help fight the devastating wildfires currently burning out of control.

KFR Chief Ken Uzeloc believes it’s important Kamloops crews lend a hand when they can, especially since the region has been helped by other communities so often in the past.

“To constantly be calling on those resources, you need to try and do your part,” Uzeloc told CFJC News. “It’s early — at least we thought it was early in the season to be able to send that up without it having a significant impact on our own situation.”

It’s been unusually hot and dry for Kamloops in May and that has KFR on alert.

“We’re a little earlier to where we would see this amount of wildfires, and also we haven’t had a lot of rain, so it could be a lot worse, but really into May and specifically into June will tell.”

The wildfire danger rating is high for the Kamloops Fire Centre. In response, the fire chief has put a ban on all open flames in public spaces and reminds the public that wood burning of any kind is prohibited – even on private property.

“If we don’t get any moisture and rain,” he said, “it’s gonna be very dry throughout the province with a lot of restrictions in place throughout the whole summer.”

If the situation was to worsen here and KFR needed the bodies locally, the fire chief said he would cancel the deployment.

One crew has returned and another has taken its place in the north for another seven-day period.

“Hopefully, with our members coming back from getting some experience up there, they can bring that and apply that here to better position us to deal with any fires that do come up,” Uzeloc said.