Out of control wildfire in Kootenay National Park continues to grow in size

An out of control wildfire continues to burn in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, near the Alberta border.

The fire has grown to about 190 hectares since it started Wednesday evening, which is the size of around 475 football fields.

Lightning caused the fire in the Mitchell Ridge area in the southern part of the park, two kilometres east of the Kootenay Valley Viewpoint and seven kilometres north of Nipika Mountain Resort.

Charlie McLellan, fire and vegetation specialist for Parks Canada in Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, says having a wildfire of this size so early in the season is concerning.

“It seems quite small compared to some of the fires that are burning in the boreal, but for here in the mountains for this time of year in mid-May to have a fire that’s nearly 200 hectares is certainly not normal,” he said.

“We don’t enter fire season until typically early July, so this is much earlier where we did get lightning ignitions that would grow beyond kind of initial attack efforts.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Parks Canada said the growth of the fire was primarily seen at the northern edge, where it is burning in a forested area with plenty of material to ignite.

It says 23 firefighters and three helicopters are focusing on holding containment on the southwest side to prevent it from spreading to an area that would be challenging to fight.

McLellan says there are already a lot of resources being dedicated to the ongoing fires in Alberta and northern B.C., but that they have enough to battle this specific fire right now.

He adds that cooler temperatures and rain in the forecast for early this week will help firefighting efforts.

“That will allow us to put firefighters on the head of the fire and places like that, where previously, in the last few days was unsafe to do so,” he said.

“We’re really looking to capitalize on this opportunity and get good control of this fire and containment in the event that we get back into a hot and dry spell, which we’re hoping that doesn’t happen given the time of year but, we’re certainly preparing for that as a potential.”

Smoke from the fire can he seen from Highway 93 South, near the Kootenay Valley Viewpoint, but Parks Canada says there is no immediate threat to public safety, infrastructure or roads at this time.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, there were 84 wildfires burning across Alberta, 23 of which were classified as out of control.

Almost 11,000 Albertans are away from their homes.

Alberta Wildfire says there were only five new wildfire starts between Friday morning and Sunday morning and is thanking Albertans for respecting the fire bans and restrictions that are in place.

More than 2,700 firefighters and support staff from Alberta and across North America are battling these fires.

One hundred more members of the Canadian Armed Forces arrive in the province on Monday.