THE LATEST:

• Evacuation orders are slowly starting to lift around B.C.’s most concerning fires — including near Clinton and Summerland.
• The B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) said that smoke blanketing the southern half of the province is likely to linger through Sunday.
• An unstable weather pattern could cause more lightning-caused fires in B.C. on Sunday, according to a fire information officer.
• Highway 97 near Cache Creek reopened in a limited fashion on Saturday, after weeks of being closed due to the Pear Lake wildfire.

Smoke to linger

The BCWS says it’s keeping an eye on an unstable weather pattern that could produce more lightning strikes and wildfires in the southern half of the province on Sunday.

It comes even as evacuation orders are slowly lifted near some of the province’s most concerning fires, with thousands of evacuees returning home in recent days.

Rick van Kesteren, a provincial fire information officer, said smoke blanketing southern B.C. is likely to linger for a few days.

He said Friday evening that the smoke reduces surface temperatures and could prove a boon for crews — but aircraft have to deal with poor visibility as a result.

“When you think of the impacts that smoke could have on health, that’s obviously one thing that we’re looking out for with our crews as well,” he said.

Van Kesteren said the wildfire service on Sunday will be looking out for lightning strikes potentially causing fires in south-central B.C. in particular, where the fire risk is highest.

While lightning could cause fires immediately, or produce sparks that are later ignited in hotter conditions, Van Kesteren said the impact of a lightning strike is unpredictable.

“We’ll just have to, kind of, wait and see what happens,” he said. “We can, like, preposition our crews, so to say, in areas that we think might have lightning.”

The fire information officer added that firefighting crews from New Brunswick and Quebec are being brought in to help deal with more than 120 fires burning throughout B.C. — most of which were sparked by lightning.

“We have almost 1,800 firefighting personnel assigned to incidents right now,” he said.

Highways affected

Nicholas Kosovic, the co-owner of the Stagecoach Cafe in Clinton, was among hundreds who returned to the community on Saturday after evacuation orders were downgraded.

“When you first come in from the south, you will find the landscape has has changed due to the fire, and many homes along the highway have burned,” he said.

“So it does really change your expectation of a return home, and many people are not going to be returning home.”

WATCH | Clinton evacuees return home:

Hundreds of B.C. wildfire evacuees given the go-ahead to return home

Residents of Clinton returned to their homes Saturday, though evacuation orders still remain in place for properties to the west of the village due to the Pear Lake Wildfire. Summerland residents are also gradually being allowed to return, but a boil water notice is in place for the district .

That fire remains B.C.’s biggest this year, and it was mapped at 1,593 square kilometres as of Saturday evening.

Highway 97, which was closed since July 28 in the Cache Creek area due to the Pear Lake fire, fully reopened at noon PT Saturday.

A stretch of Highway 97 further south in the Okanagan — between Peachland and the Pyramid Picnic Area in Kickininee Provincial Park — which had been closed due to the Bald Range wildfire also reopened in a limited fashion on Thursday.

No stopping will be allowed along either stretch, according to the B.C. government, as both remain active wildfire areas.

The Bald Range wildfire near Summerland covers an area of more than 205 square kilometres and remains out of control — but local officials say they’re hopeful more residents will return home in the coming days.

Highway 1 north of Hope in the Fraser Canyon is a major stretch that is closed due to wildfires in B.C.

The nearby Brunswick Creek wildfire complex around Boston Bar covers an area of more than 700 square kilometres as of Saturday evening.