Crews making progress on 79-square kilometre East Kootenay wildfire

Firefighters are making progress on damping the Doctor Creek wildfire in B.C.'s East Kootenay, keeping flames away from cabins and campgrounds in the Findlay Valley.

More than 79 square kilometres of land just west of Canal Flats, B.C., has been affected, almost four times the size of the Christie Mountain fire that caused the evacuation of hundreds of properties near Pentictonin August.

The BC Wildfire Service says 180 firefighters, nine pieces of heavy equipment and five helicopters are tackling the fire.

HannaSwift, the wildfire service's information officer, said the size of the wildfire increased by about five square kilometres last week due to winds of between 60 and 70 km/h, butplanned ignition the deliberate burning of natural fuels such as grasses and rain this week had helped to reduce itsintensity.

"We did see a little bit of a reprieve in weather and there was up to 10 millimetres [of rain] on the southeast flank, which is really beneficial for crews because that southeast flank is really where there was the most fire activity," Swift said.

There are currently evacuation orders on five propertiesin the Findlay Creek area. Five others have been downgraded to evacuation alerts.