According to the BC Wildfire Service, 87 per cent of this year’s wildfires have been caused by lightning. With nearly 9,000 attacks in the last 48 hours, that’s bad news for crews battling these fires.
“Most of these lightning strikes are not accompanied by precipitation, so they can increase the risk of fires,” Aydan Corey said. British Columbia Forest Fire Service,
Electrical fires are more dangerous because they take longer to ignite. This can cause significant damage before the fire is even reported.
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“Lightning can cause incidents that can take several days to a week to turn into a fire.”
Over the past two days, 15 fires have broken out in the province, 8 of which were caused by lightning.
Two large lightning-caused fires have broken out this week in the North Okanagan and Shuswap regions. The Bonneau Creek fire occurred seven kilometres southwest of Cherryville and covered 2.5 hectares. Nine kilometres southeast of Sicamous, another fire is burning out of control and has consumed more than 20 hectares of land.
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