(UPDATE: September 10th @ 9:55 a.m.) – The BC Wildfire Service reports that the parattack crew that was sent in to fight the fire on Saturday afternoon camped out overnight. The crew of 12 parattack firefighters continues to fight the fire today with the assistance of two skimmers that will drop water on the fire.
The K Mountain fire remains at its last estimated size of seven hectares.
(UPDATE: September 9th @ 2:30 p.m.) – BC Wildfire Service sends in parattack crew.
On Saturday afternoon, BC Wildfire Service assessed the K Mountain fire and made the decision to send in a parattack team of 12.
The parattack members are part of the Canadian Smokejumpers. The 12 parachuted into the K Mountain fire on Saturday afternoon to aggressively fight the fire on land in a safe area.
The photo below was taken of a Canadian Smokejumper making a jump in a 2013 fire near the Pine Pass in B.C.
The parattack crews must then hike out of the area.
The Canadian Smokejumpers have been used as a provincial resource in the Kamloops Fire Region to fight other fires this summer with difficult terrain.
After this morning's assessment, BC Wildfire Service decided that air support was not required at this time.
The fire remains at 7 hectares in size.
(UPDATE: September 9th @ 10:30 a.m.)
Air crews headed out to the K Mountain fire on Saturday morning to assess the situation.
Photo Credit: BC WildfireK Mountain Wildfire
Crews will determine if it is safe enough to land ground crews and fight the fire.
Overnight, there was no change to the size in the fire, it remains at seven hectares in size.
It is still showing rank 1 and rank 2 behaviour.
Photo Credit: BC Wildfire ServiceK Mountain Fire.
The photo shows the vertical challenges of landing crews safely in order to fight the fire.
A decision is expected to be made by Saturday afternoon.
(UPDATE: September 8th @ 2 :45 p.m.)
The K Mountain fire is now estimated at seven hectares in size.
"It's a unique one because the majority of the fire is burning in extremely unique terrain," said Justine Hunse, Wildfire BC Information Officer.
According to Hunse, the slope where the fire is burning is extremely steep, almost like a cliff face.
"It's basically impossible to put ground crews on a fire that's burning on a grade that steep," she said.
Since the fire is burning more vertically than horizontally and air tankers drop horizontally, Hunse explained that air support would be ineffective for this fire.
On top of that, ground crews are required onsite to support air tankers and the area has been deemed unsafe for ground crews.
Visibility continues to be a factor as well.
(Original Story: September 8th @ 10:30 a.m.)
A fire six kilometres south of Keremeos was discovered Thursday evening on K Mountain and poor visibility is making it unsafe air support to tend to the fire.
The fire is estimated about two kilometres in size and the cause is unknown.
Because the fire is near the summit of K Mountain, air support is required in order to drop off crews and equipment.
Photo Credit: BC Wildfire Service
However, as of Friday morning, crews were unable to land as extremely poor visibility is making it unsafe to fly.
In the meantime, the BC Wildfire Service is keeping a close eye on the fire.
The Similkameen River runs in between the community of Keremeos and K Mountain.
Crews will be sent out as soon as it is safe to do so, according to Justine Hunse, BC Wildfire Information Officer.
K Mountain is on fire. #keremeos #similkameen
— Chris Mathieson (@cogno) September 8, 2017
While the fire was highly visible last night from Keremeos, no structures are threatened at this time.
The Diamond Creek fire from Washington is approximately 45 kilometres southwest of the K Mountain fire.
The Kamloops Fire Centre is reporting winds from the southwest gusting between 15 to 25 kilometres per hour today.
Hunse said it's unlikely that the Diamond Creek fire will reach the K Mountain fire, but the bigger factor is poor visibility.
Photo Credit: FireSmoke.ca
"That fire is still 45 km so there's a good distance between the two," said Hunse. "But winds are definitely carrying that smoke into the Similkameen valley which is hampering visibility on the K Mountain fire."
The Kamloops Fire Centre is monitoring conditions closely and will send crews to the Kay Mountain fire as soon as possible.
