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Officials say B.C. fire risk extinguished

Sept. 28, 2011, Kamloops, B.C. – Despite the potential for a blazing wildfire season, forestry officials say the fire risk in B.C.'s woodlands has been snuffed out.

Wildfire Management Branch spokeswoman Alyson Couch says, with wildfire season officially set to wrap up at the end of this week, the fire count is down dramatically.

She says cooler temperatures and rain kept the situation manageable over the summer.

More than 1,000 fires are reported in B.C. over an average fire season but Couch says just over 600 have been counted since the 2011 wildfire season began in April.

About 120 square kilometres of bush was charred this year – 110 square kilometres of that in a single blaze in a remote area of northern B.C., along the Yukon border.

The last of a contingent of borrowed air tankers returns to home bases outside the province on Friday but Couch says some ground crews will stay in place until any remaining fire threat is gone.