Vancouver Island wildfire doubles in size overnight to cover 90 hectares of land

A Vancouver Island wildfire, dubbed the Wesley Ridge wildfire, has doubled in size overnight to cover 90 hectares of land on the northern shore of Cameron Lake. 

The blaze is located approximately halfway between Port Alberni and Parksville, and can be seen clearly from the Alberni Highway (Highway 4). 

The Wesley Ridge Wildfire was first discovered on Thursday July 31st, and has prompted an evacuation order from the Regional District of Nanaimo for the surrounding area. 

The area under the evacuation order can be seen below:

Those impacted by the evacuation order will be contacted directly. 

The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) says that currently, seven officers, four initial attack crews and one unit crew are responding to this wildfire.

Additionally, there is heavy equipment in the area helping with the response and one helicopter attacking the blaze from above. 

BCWS says that because of the challenging terrain, this wildfire may be difficult to fight back. 

“Overnight growth was cross-slope, east to west between the lake and the ridge overnight,” said BCWS in a response update. 

“Crews, heavy equipment and aviation resources continued operations overnight. Structure Protection resources are enroute. Tactics will focus on the north flank of the fire.”

Though the blaze is in close proximity to Highway 4, being just across the lake from the corridor, BCWS says that the highway has not yet been affected directly. 

“This is an emerging incident, and while highway 4 is not impacted, we ask all travellers using highway 4 to please be mindful of crews working in the area, proceed with caution, stay focussed on the road and maintain a steady flow of traffic,” said BCWS in a response update. 

Current highway conditions can be found via DriveBC. 

In addition to BCWS firefighters engaging the blaze, Coombs and Dashwood Fire Departments are also contributing to the fire suppression efforts.