Canadian Rockies International Airport on Evacuation Alert

Fire Behaviour & Site conditions
Fire activity has increased to the north of the airport and west of the mission road. Ground crews, heavy equipment, and aviation resources are actively working in the area in an attempt to contain further growth. Fire behaviour in this area has been observed at rank 2 – 3. Meaning it is a low to moderately vigorous surface fire with a moderate rate of spread and occasional candling. Learn more about Wildfire Rank here.

The size is expected to increase again when a response officer can track the fire.

Ground Operations
The majority of the fire activity from peak burning period on Thursday has been in the area north of the airport and west of the mission road. The fire has spread towards and north of the airport. The Spring prescribed burn continues to hold the fires progression in the area east of the airport.
Crews are spread throughout priority areas of the fire to patrol and hold it at existing control lines.

The planned ignition from the mission road to Francis Lake held during the peak burning period. A small section to the northeast that was not a part of the small-scale planned ignition has had skimmers working on it continuously to keep the humidity up.

Heavy equipment has been working along the LD Ranch road to remove excess canopy in order to reduce the chances of crown fire spread. Machine guard is in place off of the Wycliffe Cherry Creek road south towards the airport. There is a night crew of heavy equipment in place to support potential overnight operations in this area as needed.

Aviation
There are six helicopters assigned to this incident including three heavy-lift helicopters. Airtankers remain assigned and a skimmer group is staged out of Kamloops. Aviation resources are being shared across the incident to priority areas as required. Information on retardant can be found here.

Structure Protection 
Cranbrook fire department has been mobilized to begin structure protection on critical assets at the Canadian Rockies International Airport.

Incoming structure protection crews were integrated into the response structure throughout the day. A structure assessments and protection are ongoing in all alerted and ordered areas.

Structure protection and defense is maintaining a presence throughout the fire in potential areas of concern.

Evacuation Orders and Alerts
As a result of the increased fire behaviour on Thursday July 20th the Regional District of East Kootenay has increased the evacuation alert area as follows:
https://www.rdek.bc.ca/departments/protectiveservices/emergencyinfo/evacuation_alerts_orders/

In addition, the City of Cranbrook has implemented an evacuation alert for the Canadian Rockies International Airport: https://cranbrook.ca/news/evacuation-alert-in-place-for-canadian-rockies-international-airport-due-to-st-marys-river-fire

Evacuation alerts and orders for The ʔaq’am community remain unchanged as follows:  https://www.facebook.com/aqam.community

Donations
No approved GoFundMe campaigns have been started by the ʔaq̓am staff in response to this wildfire. Any GoFundMe campaigns linked to this incident are not connected to the community. Further details can be found in the official media release.