WATCH: The wet weather moving in Tuesday will help firefighters still on the scene of a 21-hectare blaze near the village of Sayward, and others across the province. Dean Stoltz reports.
A 21-hectare fire in the Sayward Valley, just outside the Village of Sayward is now almost fully contained.
“We’re making really good progress,” said Incident Commander Ben Boghean of the B.C. Wildfire Service. “We have hose around 90% per cent of the fire. There is about 10 per cent which is pretty steep ground and pretty dangerous for our crews to get into so we’re going a little slower in there.”
Four helicopters hit the fire hard on Saturday and favourable weather conditions helped as well.
“We didn’t get the winds we were expecting. We got lower temperatures and higher relative humidity so that really helped us make some headway,” added Boghean.
Sayward Mayor John MacDonald says the village is basically in a bowl and that’s why everyone was concerned about the fire.
“If it did come down that mountain on this side instead of going south is it did we would’ve been in a lot of trouble here in the village,” he said.
“It’s dry in the forest, if you go in there it’s crunchy.”
Officials say the cause is still being investigated.
Relief from the dry conditions is coming in the form of a frontal system which is expected to bring rain to most of Vancouver Island Tuesday.
Dean Stoltz
