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Telus on 'heightened alert' as fire nears lines west of Burns Lake

As the China Nose wildfire burns between Topley and Burns Lake, Telus is "on heightened alert".

As the China Nose wildfire burns between Topley and Burns Lake, Telus is "on heightened alert" as the flames approach telecommunication infrastructure.

"It may impact us, though there is currently no impact. We are working very closely with emergency responders and they are poised to protect our infrastructure and spray it with fire retardant as needed ... any outage from the fire would effect data and cellular service, but land lines would remain in service," said spokesperson Chris Gerritsen.

"We are monitoring the situation and are ready to respond ... we have technicians standing by who will go in and make repairs, if needed, as soon as the area is deemed safe."

As of Friday afternoon the fire covered 4,000 hectares and was zero per cent contained. Gusting winds from a cold front moving in tonight is expected to create "challenging firefighting conditions for crews on the ground".

The fire has also resulted in the closure of Highway 16.