The Frenchman Road wildfire near Sayward tripled in size overnight according to Dorothy Jacobson of the BC Wildfire Service, but crews have a better handle on it than they did.
The fire started burning in some slash near the Village of Sayward on Friday morning and the Coastal Fire Centre indicated it grew to approximately 6.5 hectares in size by Friday evening in an area adjacent to Frenchman Road in Sayward, 76 kilometres northwest of Campbell River. It didn’t grow much on Saturday, but that situation changed overnight.
“It’s at 21 hectares but it’s being held,” Jacobson says. “We had it at five to seven hectares yesterday, and we knew this high pressure ridge that’s been over us was starting to break down so we knew we’d have winds yesterday and there were concerns about that, but it’s being held, which means we don’t expect it to grow under these conditions.”
Jacobson says there are currently 34 firefighters holding the fire, along with helicopter support, “and we expect to have it under control in the next day or so.”
The cause of the fire is being listed as “person” by the fire service, but Jacobson says that’s all they can say at this point.
“It can sometimes take us a little while to figure out,” Jacobson says. “All I can say right now is that it’s under investigation.”
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