The blaze which was dubbed the ‘Old Man Lake’ wildfire is now considered to be ‘being held’ by the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) as of Tuesday morning.
This means the fire is no longer out of control and is projected to remain within the current perimeter, control line or boundary based on current conditions.
The fire has been growing rapidly for the last eight days and at its largest was 230 hectares in size.
The response from BCWS saw 70 resources on site to battle the flames, including Initial Attack crews, unit crews, parattack crews, and tree fallers. Additionally, there were four helicopters consistently responding to the fire.
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According to BCWS, crews and aviation resources continue to make good progress containing the south and north flanks of the fire, working west to east.
The west flank along the Sooke River is fully contained.
They added that as a precaution the Capital Regional District (CRD) has closed several regional parks and trails in the area.
This includes the whole of Sooke Potholes Regional Park, the Spring Salmon Place (KWL-UCHUN) Campground, the section of Galloping Goose that passes through the park and the Sooke Potholes Gateway.
These areas will continue to be closed indefinitely.
As of this publication, there are 354 active wildfires in BC. Only two of these are on Vancouver Island, but one, the Old Man Lake wildfire, is being held and the other, which is near Nanaimo, is under control.
