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UPDATE: A couple more days of work monitoring Kaleden fire

Fire Chief Denis Gaudry says patrols didn’t see a lot of action from hot spots in morning patrols
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B.C. Wildfire Service bombers do their work on the Kaleden wildfire in its early hours late Monday afternoon, marking a big push early on. Fire Chief Denis Gaudry has credited that early push, at least in part, to the success in knocking the fire down. Mark Brett/Western News

Update: 1 p.m.

Kaleden’s acting Fire Chief Denis Gaudry says firefighters still have at least a few days ahead of monitoring the situation on the wildfire that lit up the small community’s hillside late Tuesday afternoon.

A morning crew finished their rounds patrolling the area on Thursday, and found “very few” hot spots, according to Gaudry.

“So things are progressing very well,” he said. “And low wind this afternoon, so we’re looking good.”

But Gaudry said he won’t be pulling patrols until they have a couple of days without seeing any hot spots at all.

“Just to make sure. So, there will be some attention to it for at least the next two days and maybe a little bit further,” Gaudry said.

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Original: 10:54 a.m.

Firefighters say they had a successful patrol of the wildfire zone in Kaleden overnight Wednesday, with no events of note, marking big strides toward getting the blaze entirely extinguished.

“This morning, we have the patrol crew from the Kaleden Fire Department, and also the awesome continuing support fro m B.C. Wildfire Management Branch,” acting Fire Chief Denis Gaudry said. “They’re continuing to just mop up and put out hot spots as they pop up. And it’s business of just slowly putting it out.”

The lack of any major updates has made for some cautious optimism from Gaudry, though forecasts continue to show temperatures in the mid-30s for Thursday.

“It’s basically on plan to completely extinguish it,” Gaudry said. “Still, with the warm temperatures like that, just stuff like that, we want to just maintain our pressure on it and if sort of the little puffers, as I call them, show up, then we’ll put them out and just continue patrolling.”

While temperatures are still high, the forecast shows low wind throughout the day, which Gaudry said was a good sign.

“That’ll be superb.”