Smoke from holdover wildfires visible in northeast B.C.

Andrew Kurjata · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 10, 2025 4:16 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

The B.C. Wildfire Service says immoderate holdover fires from 2024 are erstwhile again disposable successful immoderate areas, "smouldering and producing disposable smoke."

There are inactive 37 progressive wildfires burning successful Western Canada, chiefly British Columbia but besides Alberta, according to the latest figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

The bulk are successful B.C.'s acold northeast, wherever ongoing drought conditions fuelled blazes that destroyed respective homes and forced the evacuation of the full assemblage of Fort Nelson past year.

Pedro Roldan-Delgado of the Prince George Fire Centre, which covers northeast B.C., said his squad has been receiving aggregate calls astir the smoke. He said crews are going to "known locations wherever determination person been vigor signatures" to effort to stamp the fires out.

WATCH | How holdover fires work: 

Often, ample fires successful adust areas volition proceed to pain underground implicit the winter, lone to resurface successful spring. These are known as "zombie fires" oregon "overwintering fires."

Research suggests such fires are becoming much communal arsenic the clime warms. The hot, adust conditions that lend to almighty wildfires during the summertime tin pb to heavy burning successful carbon-rich soils similar peat.

Roldan-Delgado said "it's inactive excessively aboriginal to tell" if the emergence of these holdover fires awesome different hard play ahead.