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July 20: Some crews replaced on Elephant Hill fire (formerly Ashcroft Reserve)

Weather a factor today
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A helicopter hovering closely above the water. Photo taken July 7 by Matti J. Lagerbom.

There wasn’t too much fire activity overnight on the Elephant Hill (formerly Ashcroft Reserve) fire, matched by some spotty rain and cooler conditions, says Fire Information Officer Claire Allen.

“Right now skies are looking fairly clear out there so we’re just going to have to wait and see what we get for the rest of the day.”

Related: July 19: The Elephant Hill (formerly Ashcroft Reserve) fire jumping the Bonaparte River is not a concern at this time

There are now 218 firefighters, 15 helicopters, 62 pieces of heavy equipment and 48 structural protection personnel, such as structural firefighters working on the fire, according to Allen.

“We did have some of our BC Wildfire Service units crews reach their operational health and safety limit for the amount of days they can be deployed. So we got a new crew in on Tuesday and one last night and then other crews are arriving. We had a unit crew arrive yesterday. The numbers haven’t fluctuated too much but the actual personnel have.”

“We’re going to have a bit of unsettled weather so we could have some more precipitation, cooler temperatures as well as higher humidity. The cooler temperatures and higher humidity will reduce fire behaviour but in conjunction with those unsettled conditions, we could see stronger winds. It’s definitely a situation we will be monitoring as the hours progress today to see what it does to our fire behaviour.