NEWS: GROUPS PARTNER FOR TOURISM STRATEGY ▼ A7
Times
Thursday, August 7, 2014 ▼ Volume 50 No. 32 ▼ www.clearwatertimes.com ▼ $1.35 Includes GST
THE
NORTH THOMPSON
HE WRITES TOO:
2014
CCNA BLUE RIBBON
Multi-talented musician publishes book. See A2 inside.
First Place Best All Round Newspaper & Best Editorial Page Second Place Best Front Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation 2014 First Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation 2014
Battling for the ball Megan Sim battles Josh Kiewitt for the ball during a community drop-in soccer session at the Clearwater Secondary School field on Thursday, July 31. Sessions are every Tuesday and Thursday, May to September, starting at 7 p.m. Everyone is welcome. For another soccer picture, see page A12 inside. Photo by Keith McNeill
Campfires cause forest fire near Spahats Falls Keith McNeill Human foolishness was the cause of a potentially serious fire that started on the weekend near Spahats Falls, according to Jim Jones, manager of Clearwater Fire Zone. Two campfires were left that were not put out properly, as well as two debris piles were lit, Jones said. The fire likely started late Saturday afternoon and burned all night before being actioned. As of Monday a crew from Kurt Dodd Contracting plus an excavator belonging to Larry Tucker were trying to put it out. “The local rain cells that moved through likely saved our bacon with
Spahats. There was a lot of dead grass there,” the fire zone manager said. Continued if sporadic showers have allowed Clearwater Fire Zone to avoid the major forest fire challenges that are emerging in the rest of the Kamloops Fire Center as well as across the province, Jones added. Compared with the rest of the fire center plus the Valemount area, there has been little lightning activity locally. A lightning storm that moved through Saturday evening caused a large number
of strikes, particularly south of Birch Island, but no fires were found on the ground. As of Monday, Clearwater's three-person Initial Attack crew was fighting one of two new fires in the Raft River Valley. A contract crew provided by Claude Poulin of Vavenby was to relieve the IA crew so they could move to the second fire in the Raft. Because the road to the second fire had been deactivated, the IA crew likely would fly to the second fire. A single tree was reported to be on fire on the Hydro line next to the highway at Moonbeam Creek north of Blue River.
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BC Hydro had been advised and a forest technician was on his way to assess. Also north of Blue River, there was a fire between Hellroar Creek and Foam Creek that had no crew on it. A rap attack crew was actioning a fire in the North Thompson headwaters, however. Jones noted that, with so many forest fires burning in the United States and the rest of Canada, B.C. is running out of places it can get resources from. He said the next step likely would be to bring in overhead management teams from Australia, where it is now winter. Jones served in Australia several years ago when wildfires there grew to extreme levels.
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