BURNS LAKE, B.C. — The latest weather forecast in British Columbia calls for a cooling trend, but provincial firefighting officials say they are bracing for the cold front to bring intense lightning capable of igniting more forest fires.
B.C.'s chief fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek says the heat should let up across the province over the next two days, but with that comes forecasts of lightning storms and only small amounts of rain.
Skrepnek says today the amount of expected rain is between three and five millimetres, which is not enough to ease the extreme fire conditions across B.C.
He says there are currently 462 fires burning in the province, and on this date last year 130 were burning.
Forests Minister Doug Donaldson says this year's fire season has seen blazes engulf every region of the province, including Vancouver Island, the north and the southern Interior.
Donaldson says he's tried to get into the northwest community of Telegraph Creek to survey damage from an ongoing fire that destroyed or damaged two dozen buildings, but has been turned back twice due to thick smoke.
