A fire smoulders underground near Fort Nelson, B.C. There are still 92 active wildfires in British Columbia and another 54 in Alberta, despite frigid winter weather. After a gruelling eight months battling wildfires in British Columbia, Sonja Leverkus was looking forward to a break.
There are still 92 active fires in British Columbia and another 54 in Alberta — holdovers from last year — according to the latest figures from. Others are also active in the Northwest Territories, experts said. One of them is about 40 kilometres from Fort Nelson, she said. Concerned residents have been sending her videos and photos of smoke from the smouldering fires, which have persisted even through frigid weather.
Over the summer, some fires grew so large they are nearly impossible to stamp out during the winter months, Flannigan says. The Donnie Creek fire in northeastern B.C., for instance, was larger than Prince Edward Island. "It's not something I've seen in any of the data sets," said Baltzer, who researches overwintering wildfires. "What we don't know is how many of these will actually translate to reignition in the spring."