Several residents around Victoria said they they were awakened by a strong smell of smoke early Thursday morning.
"It woke me up at 3:30 a.m.," Reddit user slayziator, who created the first post on the social media forum, said.
Residents from around Fernwood, Cedar Hill, Oaklands, Yates, McKenzie and Quadra were also roused from their sleep by the smell of wood burning.
Another resident who goes by the name whitesandsbarefeet on Reddit said they smelled it around 4 p.m. yesterday in Oaklands area, then again in Cordova Bay around 9 in the evening.
"Must be wildfire somewhere that came in worse earlier this morning."
Current forecast on firesmoke.ca is not showing any active wildfires on the island, but it shows smoke blowing over from a bunch of fires in Oregon and Idaho into Victoria.
Central Saanich Fire Department has confirmed the smell of burning is coming from a smouldering fire at a yard waste facility affecting the Keating area.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze on a farm off Lochside Drive, near the Keating Road overpass project, around 3:40 a.m. on Wednesday.
At 9:34 a.m. today, the department posted an update on its Facebook page and said crews have contained the fire at the yard waste facility using perimeter sprinklers. The compost pile remains hot internally; crews will be actively monitoring the situation.
Residents can expect more smoke throughout the day.
The current air quality index as of 9 a.m. today is at 3, and is forecasted to move into moderate risk of 4, by Friday, according to Environment Health Canada.
The District says local air quality can be monitored at CSaanich.ca/fire/air-quality
