PORT ALBERNI — The rapidly growing wildfire on Vancouver Island near Port Alberni, B.C., has cut off the main road access to a community 90 kilometres southwest of the city in addition to forcing an evacuation of a local campground.
BC Wildfire Service fire information officer Christi Howes said Tuesday that the Mount Underwood blaze has reached about 8.6 square kilometres in size and forced the closure of the highway between Port Alberni and Bamfield.
Howes said the Bamfield is also without power and operating with limited services, and people should avoid travelling there by other means of transportation.
"We don't want to add any additional pressures to the community by having extra people trying to get there either by road or by trail," she said.
Bamfield is a popular tourist destination for sport fishing and for those hiking the West Coast Trail.
The fire triggered an evacuation order for an area that includes the China Creek Campground and Marina, which has 250 tent and RV campsites and is about 15 kilometres southwest of Port Alberni.
The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District said Tuesday that an evacuation order has been issued for about 300 properties in the sparsely populated area.
Howes said crews had been working on fire protection for buildings, including at private campgrounds and at forestry mills and log-sorting facilities in the area.
She said the fire is displaying behaviour up to a rank-5 intensity, which means an "extremely vigorous surface fire or active crown fire" with limited options available to fight the burning directly.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
The wildfire service said in an earlier update that an attack crew and several firefighting aircraft have been mobilized to fight the fast-growing blaze, and structural protection specialists are also on site.
Howes said three additional units arrived Tuesday, while an incident management team was en route and will take over command of the situation by Thursday.
She said the fire is not affecting the resources available to fight another nearby fire, the Wesley Ridge blaze burning near Cameron Lake that had triggered evacuations for hundreds of homes last week.
Howes said firefighters are anticipating cooler weather and some rain in the area later this week, but the situation remains dynamic and crews will be watching the weather "very closely."
There are about 96 wildfires burning across B.C., eight of which are classified as out-of-control.
The Wildfire Service said Tuesday that temperatures are well above seasonal from the coast to the Rockies in southern B.C., and while cooler air is expected to move in from the north, it will remain hot and dry in the south before a new system brings rain to the area by Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2025.
The Canadian Press
