More firefighters will be brought in Thursday to battle a brush fire east of Lake Cowichan near Skutz Falls.
The 10-hectare fire is burning on a rugged slope of private forested land about 10 kilometres east of Lake Cowichan. The blaze can be seen from Cowichan Lake Road.
Twenty per cent of the overall fire — the portion on the bottom of the slope — had been contained, fire information officer Marg Drysdale said Wednesday.
The addition of more firefighters will bring the total tackling the fire to 75.
Drysdale said the fire is in a logging area containing felled and bucked timber.
“We have a lot of crew in the area, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work in the sense that there’s a lot of slash in it,” she said, referring to the debris resulting from the felling of trees.
“It’s going to be some gruelling work.”
Witnesses noticed smoke and flames north of Highway 18 about 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Firefighters from Lake Cowichan Fire and the Coastal Fire Centre responded.
The Martin Mars waterbomber was called in to drop water on the fire. Air tankers dropping water and fire retardant were also used.
On Wednesday morning, 61 firefighters battled the flames with the assistance of helicopters and heavy equipment.
The blaze is human-caused and under investigation.
