Three small wildfires (0.01 hectares) were reported in the Lower North Thompson the evening of Friday, Aug, 26, when Mother Nature hit the valley with a thunder storm that resulted in multiple lightning strikes pummeling the area.
One fire was quickly spotted on top of a small mountain above the east side of Highway 5 directly over the small community of Exlou, approximately eight kilometers south of Barriere. Residents and highway travelers observed smoke rising from the strike area,and in fairly short order flames followed as darkness fell. Barriere Fire arrived but were not able to access the fire from the valley bottom, advising via social media BC Wildfire had been dispatched. The blaze could easily be seen well into the night.
However, thanks to Mother Nature, who suddenly provided almost an inch of heavy rain in a short period of time the fire was only smoldering by morning when a BC Wildfire helicopter attended and dropped numerous buckets of water to extinguish any hot spots that remained.
The other two spot fires reported and attended by BC Wildfire were at Orchard Lake, and East of Knouff Lake.
At the time of this writing, 236 active fires are burning in the province, with 56 new fires reported in the preceding two days.