The BC Wildfire Service has pulled its firefighters and heavy equipment off of the Peacock Creek fire south of Houston and the Old Man Lake fire east of the community as of July 27 following rain and progress made in building fire guards.
Crews have also started removing sprinklers and other equipment from properties in the areas in anticipation of temperatures returning to seasonal norms.
Instead, the wildfire service is concentrating its efforts on the large Tintagel fire east of Burns Lake but does say it will monitor both the Peacock Creek and Old Man Lake fires.
“Mop up and patrol operations have been carried out for multiple days now and, in combination with precipitation that has been received throughout the week, the threat of this fire has diminished significantly,” said the wildfire service of the Peacock Creek fire.
An evacuation order from the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako for the Peacock Creek fire has also been cancelled but an alert remains in place. An evacuation order for the Old Man Creek fire has also been pulled back and replaced by an alert.
“Once resources become available mop and patrol will be reinitiated on these incidents,” the wildfire service added of the Peacock Creek and Old Man Lake fires.
It said putting more firefighters on the Tintagel and Parrot Lookout blazes will speed up efforts to build fire guards before temperatures rise again and the area dries out.
First spotted July 6, the Peacock Creek fire grew to the 1,000 hectare range after accelerating because of high winds July 11.
The Old Man Lake fire was spotted July 7 and has now consumed more than 2,000 hectares.