First four wildfires of the season break out on Vancouver Island

The first four wildfires of Vancouver Island’s fire season have been discovered since Friday and are no longer considered to be out of control. 

The first blaze was discovered just north of Port Alberni, the second is around ten kilometres south of Qualicum Beach, the third is four kilometers west of Brenton and the fourth was discovered on the outskirts of Lake Cowichan. 

The wildfire near Port Alberni was discovered on Monday, April 27th and reached a size of 0.009 hectares. It is now considered to be under control, though still active. 

This fire was located just off the side of Kitsuksis Road and the cause of the blaze is still under investigation by the BC Wildfire Service. 

The blaze located south of Qualicum Beach was discovered on Sunday, and is the only one that is still considered as “being held” rather than “under control.”

BC Wildfire Service says this blaze is located within a cutblock and smoke may be visible from Highway 4A as well as some sections of Highway 19. 

It is around two hectares in size and the cause of this fire is still under investigation. 

The wildfire located around four kilometers west of Brenton, and around 15 kilometres from Nanaimo, is now under control and only grew to a size of 0.009 hectares in size. 

It was discovered on Sunday and updated to being under control early Monday morning. The cause of this blaze is also still under investigation. 

The wildfire located furthest south on Vancouver Island, just on the outskirts of Lake Cowichan, was discovered on Saturday. 

This blaze too only grew to a maximum size of 0.009 hectares and has now been updated as being under control. 

BC Wildfire suspects this fire to have been human-caused. 

These four blazes came following a warning from the Coastal Fire Centre of a dangerous outflow weather pattern that would bring hot, dry conditions to some regions of Vancouver Island. 

As another week of warm weather approaches, Vancouver Island residents are urged to be cautious when lighting a fire. 

Currently, there are no BC Wildfire Service-mandated fire restrictions for Vancouver Island, though some municipalities may have their own fire bans and restrictions in place. 

As of this publication, there are 29 active wildfires throughout BC.