By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Latest update from Parks Canada on advancement of Kenow fire

Sep 11, 2017 | 1:50 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The Kenow wild fire continues to travel towards the Waterton townsite, but as of now it’s still not close.

That’s one of the more important pieces of information released in the lastest fire update.

Natalie Fay from Parks Canada, says the Kenow fire traveled another 4.5 kilometres southeast along the Akamina Valley during the burning period on Sunday (Sept. 10).

“As of this afternoon (Sept. 11), it’s now 1.5 kilometres away from the Akamina Pass. The fire has moved 11.5 kilometres down the valley over the pass three days, and now is 11,400 hectares in size. Intense fire behaviour is forecasted for the next two or three days and there’s a high probability the wild fire will round the corner at Akamina Pass and enter the Cameron Valley and Waterton National Parks today,” said Fay.

The unified command team has identified many containment options, including many areas for strategic burnouts or sprinkler lines.

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A 50-hectare fire is established in the Tamarac basin within the park boundaries, and helicopters are bucketing water to suppress the fire today.

Fay says the current, and incoming resources at the site, include 185 personnel, 14 air crafts, multiple fire engines, water tenders, and 16 specialized structural and wildland fire crews.

A containment strategy consisting of sprinklers and burnouts is ready to prevent the fire from leaving the park, should it be needed.

“The unified command team is undertaking aggressive suppression at this time as well, and intense fire behavior, high winds and smoke continue to reduce visibility in the area,” Fay finished by saying.

Area Commander Rick Kubian, says this is a significant event made possible by a summer long drying event that’s likely unprecedented in wildfire management history in western Canada.

“It’s resulted in forest fields that are critically dry which means that everything is available to burn. The Kenow fire has grown in the flat head valley in British Columbia over the past couple of weeks, and the current situation is that it has grown up to the continental divide and just moved over into Waterton Lakes National Park,” Kubian said.

The fire is still well back of the Waterton town site, about 15 km away as of now.

Kubian says they have worked closely with all of their partners, including the various fire crews that have been dispatched and both the B.C. and Alberta governments.

The other piece worth noting, according to Kubian is that they should have only two to three more burning days.

“Based on our forecasted weather, there is some relief in site. We do take some comfort in the fact we have some challenges ahead in the next few days, but we’re hopeful after that to see some relief,” Kubian finished.

The current weather forecast for Waterton is called for between 20-30mm of rain on Thursday and 15mm on Friday. There’s still concern about the fire moving down drainages to get to the Waterton townsite area because if a burning period were to break out the fire could move fast.

“There is a possibility the fire could move, in 8 to 12 hours, into the Waterton townsite area depending on the wind pressure and direction. We’re hopeful that it would not reach the townsite in that period because we have fire suppression measures in place right now, but the possilbility does exist,” Kubian stated.

Parks Canada will continue to provide daily updates on the situation from their Facebook and Twitter.

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