Police are responsible for accidentally igniting a wildfire threatening homes near Lytton — a fast-moving blaze that ballooned in size on Wednesday to more than 130 hectares.
A wheel fell off a trailer hauling an RCMP boat on Tuesday afternoon on Highway 12 about 20 kilometres north of Lytton, sending a shower of sparks into the ditch and igniting what has become known as the Izman Creek wildfire.
“It shot a big rain of sparks and immediately the fire started — right away, just like that,” Samuel, who asked that his last name not be published, told Castanet. He was driving behind the trailer, with one vehicle separating them.
“It’s hard to describe, but it was almost like there was gasoline on the ground or something. The grass is so dry that all those sparks just immediately were flames.”
Hot weather and windy conditions on Wednesday fuelled significant growth on the Izman Creek blaze, which has forced a handful of evacuations between Lytton and Lillooet.
Fire spread too fast
Police confirmed Samuel’s story. RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark told Castanet the equipment failure happened at about 2:20 p.m. — the trailer lost its rear right wheel and started a fire in the ditch.
“The officer stopped to engage the flames with their issued fire extinguisher, but the conditions were not favourable and they were unable to contain the fire,” he said.
Samuel said the fire was immediately too intense to be fought with a lone extinguisher.
“It was already so big and spread out because the sparks happened over quite a long distance,” he said.
“Right away, we knew nobody’s going to put this fire out right now without any equipment."
Clark said the Mounties on scene quickly notified the BC Wildfire Service.
“This is a tremendously unfortunate set of circumstances that demonstrates the need for extreme caution and fire awareness during our long wildfire season,” he said.
Samuel said there was another vehicle between him and the police trailer, but he could see the wheel smoking "for a few kilometres" before it fell off.
The RCMP’s Underwater Recovery Team was towing its boat back to the Lower Mainland from nearby Seton Lake, where Mounties had been searching for a swimmer believed to have drowned after diving in off a cliff.
The missing swimmer, a 39-year-old man, failed to resurface after landing awkwardly on a cliff dive on Sunday. Clark said police will have to return with specialized equipment to retrieve the man's body from the deep water it’s believed to be in.
Somewhat cooler Thursday
Fanned by winds and hot temperatures, the Izman Creek wildfire exploded in size on Wednesday from 25 hectares to more than 130.
Temperatures on Thursday are expected to be slightly cooler and cloudier, with a high of 25 C and winds gusting to 40 km/h. Highs are expected to be back up around 30 C on Friday and Saturday.
Three properties along Highway 12 in the area have been under evacuation order since 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Nine more properties are under alert.
The Lytton First Nation has evacuation alerts in place for Spintlum Flats and Lytton 3A to the south of the fire and Lytton 32 to the north.
