A rapidly growing wildfire near Port Alberni has cut off the main road access to Bamfield and prompted a state of local emergency and the evacuation of a campground and an area northwest of Cowichan Lake.
The Mount Underwood wildfire was estimated at 1,447 hectares, or more than 14 square kilometres, as of Tuesday evening, making it the largest blaze on Vancouver Island.
An air quality advisory for inland Vancouver Island was issued on Tuesday afternoon, with smoke from the fire impacting air quality near Port Alberni and in areas to the southeast, such as Lake Cowichan.
Areas along the west coast of Vancouver Island from Tofino to Sooke may also experience periods of smoke, but to a lesser degree, the notice said.
B.C. Wildfire Service fire information officer Christi Howes said the fire, which was discovered on Monday, has forced the closing of the road between Port Alberni and Bamfield.
Howes said Bamfield is also without power and operating with limited services, and people should avoid travelling there by other means of transportation.
“We don’t want to add any additional pressures to the community by having extra people trying to get there either by road or by trail,” she said.
Bamfield is a popular tourist destination for sport fishing and for those hiking the West Coast Trail.
The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District has declared a local state of emergency and issued an evacuation order for an area that includes the China Creek Campground and Marina, which has 250 tent and RV campsites and is about 15 kilometres southwest of Port Alberni.
Displaced campers were being directed to a temporary camping area at the Port Alberni fairgrounds, with access through the Alberni Valley Multiplex parking lot at 3737 Roger St.
On Tuesday afternoon, Emergency Management Cowichan issued an evacuation notice for parts of Electoral Area F, an area northwest of Cowichan Lake.
Regional District chairperson and Huu-ay-aht First Nations Chief-Councillor John Jack said in an update posted on Facebook that there is still road access to Bamfield through rural roads, but it should not be considered "a major thoroughfare for public to go as they like."
Jack added that the power in Bamfield will likely be out for at least 72 hours if not longer, and people currently camping near the community can choose whether to leave but the trip will likely take longer than usual.
"Take care of each other," Jack said in the message to people in the affected areas. "Check in with one another. The West Coast is resilient. I know that this is nothing new for a lot of our people, but there's empathy out there and people need to take care of one another.
"How we're feeling is going to be just as important as what we're doing, and so that kind of work is important as well."
Heather Thomson, the information officer for the regional district, said the fire was not a threat to Port Alberni. Bamfield and the Huu-ay-aht First Nation village of Anacla are also not under threat.
Howes said crews had been working on fire protection for buildings, including at private campgrounds and at forestry mills and log-sorting facilities in the area.
She said the fire is displaying behaviour up to a rank-5 intensity, which means an “extremely vigorous surface fire or active crown fire” with limited options available to fight the burning directly.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
The wildfire service said in an earlier update that an attack crew and several firefighting aircraft have been mobilized to fight the fast-growing blaze, and structural protection specialists are also on site.
Helicopters with night-vision technology were dropping water on the Mount Underwood fire overnight Monday, and an initial-attack crew has been deployed.
“Smoke is visible from surrounding communities, and due to terrain and proximity may appear to be coming from the Wesley Ridge wildfire when viewed from the north and east,” Howes said.
Three additional units arrived Tuesday, Howes said, while an incident management team was en route and will take over command of the situation by Thursday.
She said the fire was not affecting the resources available to fight the nearby Wesley Ridge blaze burning near Cameron Lake that had triggered evacuations for hundreds of homes last week.
The Mount Underwood fire, which was burning out of control on Tuesday, is just 19 kilometres from the Wesley Ridge fire to the east of Port Alberni.
The Wesley Ridge fire, almost two weeks old, has been downgraded from a rating of out-of-control to being held and more residences were removed from an evacuation order on Monday.
Port Alberni resident James Andersen said he’s concerned about the proximity of the Wesley Ridge and Mount Underwood fires.
“It’s pretty scary to have another fire so quickly after the Wesley Ridge fire, and it, too, being so close.”
He said he popped out to the store on Monday night, and when he looked behind him, he saw the full effect of the fire.
“There was this massive cloud,” he said. “It looked like an atomic bomb explosion.”
There was no growth in the Wesley Ridge fire on Monday, and fire activity was limited and in remote terrain overnight, said fire-information officer Madison Dahl.
The fire was being fought with 197 personnel on Tuesday, along with nine helicopters and 11 pieces of heavy equipment, Dahl said.
The temperature in the fire area was expected to reach 32 C on Tuesday, she said, and a heat advisory was again given out to crews.
“Crews continue to patrol through residential areas, suppressing any identified areas of heat,” Dahl said.
Delivering water has been a challenge in some areas, and one of the hoses put in place on the fire’s northwest ridge is over three kilometres long, she said.
Elsewhere on the Island, the Barsby Lake fire discovered July 27 near Nanaimo Lakes Road is under control at 2.24 hectares and the Nahmint Mountain fire south of Sproat Lake, discovered June 8, is being held at 19.8 hectares.
There have so far been 50 fires on Vancouver Island since the wildfire season began on April 1, compared with 35 at the same time last year.
Howes said firefighters are anticipating cooler weather and some rain in the area later this week, but the situation remains dynamic and crews will be watching the weather “very closely.”
There were 95 active wildfires burning throughout British Columbia as of early Tuesday afternoon, including six that started in the past 24 hours. Nine of the fires were classified as out-of-control.
