B.C. wildfire officials to hold press conference Tuesday as some rain helps crews | Globalnews.ca

More than 260 wildfires are still burning in B.C. Tuesday.

While cooler temperatures and some rain has helped crews fight some of the province’s biggest and most aggressive fires, officials say it is not quite enough to have any long-term effects.

However, it did help avoid some evacuation orders and alerts.

Officials from Emergency Management BC, the BC Wildfire Service and the RCMP will provide an update on the wildfire situation at 2 p.m. PT Tuesday.

That will be live-streamed above, on BC1 and on the Global BC Facebook page.

The biggest area of concern for wildfire crews continues to be in the Interior where the massive White Rock Lake fire, Lytton Creek fire and July Mountain fire continue to burn out of control.

2:37Dozens of structures lost to White Rock Lake fire

The White Rock Lake fire, an estimated 78,190 hectares in size, swept through the communities of Killiney and Ewings Landing on Monday.

It is estimated that about 70 properties have been burned or affected by that fire, in addition to the homes and structures already lost in Monte Lake and Westwold earlier this month.

The Coquihalla Highway reopened to essential traffic only on Tuesday at noon after being closed since Sunday evening between Hope and Merritt due to the July Mountain wildfire.

That fire has knocked out power to services along the Coquihalla and burned many kilometres of wildlife fencing along the side of the highway.

The Mount Law wildfire that’s burning in the Central Okanagan, near a West Kelowna neighbourhood, is still estimated at 800 hectares.

Located southwest of Glenrosa, BC Wildfire said on Tuesday before lunch that the blaze is still classified as out of control.

On Monday, another 18 properties were placed on evacuation alert in the Central Okanagan on Monday night because of the Mount Law wildfire.

Forty-three firefighters and technicians from the Yukon arrived in the province Monday, which means there are now 519 out-of-province firefighters battling blazes around the province, including crews from Australia, Mexico, the Prairies, central and eastern Canada.

Statistics from the wildfire service show 8,262 properties around B.C. are on evacuation order, a leap of nearly 2,000 since Friday, while residents of almost 23,000 more home must be ready to leave on short notice.

This story will be updated following the press conference at 2 p.m. PT.

-with files from The Canadian Press