Firefighters are battling a fire at the base of Blackcomb Mountain near Whistler Village.
The Resort Municipality of Whistler said the ground fire was ignited around 5:30 p.m. Sunday above Painted Cliff Road in the Blackcomb Benchlands area. No homes or structures are affected.
More than 50 firefighters from Whistler Fire Rescue Service, Whistler Blackcomb, and the B.C. Wildfire Branch are responding, with at least five aircraft dropping water and fire retardant on the fire.
The B.C. Wildfire Branch has sent 19 firefighters, two helicopters and air tankers to fight the blaze, said fire information officer Marg Drysdale.
“It is a human-caused fire, and it is under investigation,” said Drysdale. “There was no lightning in the area, so we know it’s not a natural-caused fire.”
The B.C. Wildfire Branch is asking people to steer clear of the area where firefighters are working.
Elsewhere on the Mainland, crews continue to battle a forest fire on the edge of Harrison Lake that blanketed the popular recreational area in smoke on the holiday weekend.
The fire flared up Saturday near the mouth of Big Silver Creek — about 30 kilometres north of Harrison Hot Springs — and by Sunday it had grown to 60 hectares. Fire officials believe the fire was sparked by humans, but the exact cause is not yet known and is under investigation, said Marg Drysdale, with the Coastal Fire Centre.
An inversion held smoke and clouds close to the ground early Sunday, hampering the efforts of firefighters on the ground who had to do their job without air support.
But a gentle south wind picked up speed later in the day, lifting the inversion and allowing helicopters to assist in fighting the fire.
Meanwhile, a lightning-caused fire discovered nearly a week ago 12 kilometres east of Burton in the West Kootenay is now 60 per cent contained, and a 156-hectare fire about 12 kilometres west of Kamloops that is suspected to be human-caused is now 80 per cent contained.
The B.C. Wildfire Service asked those in the Cariboo and Prince George fire centres to “use extreme caution” with open fires. Some of those areas were at risk of thunderstorms over the weekend.
