Fire east of Chilliwack Lake grows significantly; BC Wildfire still monitoring

CHILLIWACK — The fire east of Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park that was first discovered on August 13 and remained at 230 hectares for about a week in August, has now grown to over 1,500 hectares.

According to an update on the BC Wildfire Service website, the Maselpanik Creek fire is now 1,517.7 hectares as of Friday morning, September 1.

According to the BC Wildfire Service website, fire V12722 was first listed as two hectares big on Sunday, August 13.

As of Wednesday, Aug. 16 the fire had grown to 176 hectares in size and was deemed out of control. It later increased to 230 hectares around August 23, before being updated on the eve of the Labour Day long weekend.

Its exact location is one kilometre west of Maselpanik Creek.

BCWS believes it was caused naturally or by lighting, not by human activity. BCWS says it is not attacking the fire, but instead monitoring it at this point.