KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Several wildfires in southern British Columbia were quieter than usual over the weekend.
Fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek says the heavy blanket of smoke from fires in Washington state was a factor.
He says the smoke acts like cloud cover by reflecting some of the sun’s heat away from the ground and trapping some humidity closer to ground level.
There are 188 wildfires burning in B.C., with just eight new blazes sparked Saturday while one fire broke out Sunday.
A wildfire west of Rock Creek that claimed 30 homes since it began 10 days ago measures 45 square kilometres though half of it has been contained.
The nearly 32-square-kilometre Testalinden fire south of Oliver is 60 per cent contained while the Wilson Mountain blaze north of Oliver covers three square kilometres and is fully contained.