B.C. Wildfire Service says lightning-caused fires in the forecast for Vancouver Island

The B.C. Wildfire Service is preparing for potential lightning-caused wildfires in the province, including on Vancouver Island, where unusually dry conditions persist.

The wildfire management group says lightning is in the forecast for the latter part of this week – spurring reminders for caution so firefighters don’t have to deal with human-caused wildfires too.

“Typically, the insular mountain range, the Beaufort range that’s just behind Parksville, is one of the hotspots for lightning,” says the B.C. Wildfire Service’s lead meteorologist, Matt Macdonald.

“There’s a good likelihood as we get into Thursday and particularly Friday that we’ll see lightning strike in the higher terrain of Vancouver Island, and most likely not accompanied by rain, into very receptive fuels.”

Much of the island is experiencing above-normal drought conditions. Macdonald says it started last fall with unseasonably warm, dry weather. It persisted through the winter and is worsening into our hottest months of the summer.

New fire bans are expected for the Coastal Fire Centre, which includes the island, by noon on Friday.

More firefighters from Mexico and the U.S. are on their way to help fight B.C.’s wildfires in one of the worst fire seasons in the province’s history with more than one million hectares burned.

The B.C. Wildfire Service says the encouraging news is people seem to be paying attention, across the province.

“We see far more preparedness,” says the director of wildfire operations, Cliff Chapman. “The fires over the [Canada Day] long weekend, we had 46 of them. We received over 1,000 calls into our call centre, which is phenomenal.”

The service says that’s exactly what staff want: more tips reporting fires.

The northeast corner of the province is hardest hit to date, with three wildfires of note, including the Donnie Creek fire. It’s the largest wildfire in the province’s history and is still burning at more than 571,512 hectares, southeast of Fort Nelson.

Macdonald says the wind pattern for Vancouver Island has shifted, so islanders are seeing some smoke blow into the region from the northeast.

“If we look at our air quality stations over the last couple of days, they’ve been picking up on slight concentrations but nothing that really poses a risk to the health of British Columbians just yet,” says the meteorologist.

The wildfire smoke on the island is expected to build into Saturday and clear by Sunday.