Homes are pictured near the McDougall Creek Wildfire as it burns in West Kelowna, British Columbia on Friday, August 18, 2023. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
Posted on 08/18/2023 6:30:12 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
British Columbia Premier David Eby is expected to declare a provincewide state of emergency. His office has scheduled a news conference for 6:15 p.m. PT Friday
The expected announcement comes after a significant number of homes were destroyed by a fast-burning, "unpredictable" wildfire in the West Kelowna area as crews fight through what the B.C. Wildfire Service has predicted will be the most challenging days of the provincial fire season due to gusting winds.
The extreme conditions in the area are not expected to let up over the next 36 hours, and fires across the province may see significant growth, provincial officials say. New evacuation orders and alerts were being announced for the area throughout the day.
More than 2,400 properties are under an evacuation order, and more than 4,800 properties are under an evacuation alert due to the encroaching McDougall Creek wildfire, which grew more than a hundredfold — from 64 hectares to 6,800 hectares (68 square kilometres) — in just 24 hours.
"It was a devastating night last night, probably the most challenging of my career," said West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund about the destructive fire. "We fought hard last night to protect our community.
"We fought 100 years worth of fires all in one night."
Brolund said some emergency responders were trapped because they had to rescue residents who chose not to leave their properties despite being under evacuation order.
"That's the fire chief's worst nightmare," he said.
Brolund and Kelowna Fire Chief Travis Whiting said no lives were lost despite the danger firefighters and residents faced.
Long-time West Kelowna resident Steven Francis was one of the thousands evacuated Thursday night. He said he's faced evacuation orders before, but the intensity of the McDougall Creek fire is unlike anything he's experienced.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Are you OK?
Terrorism by fire.
My wife’s cousin used to live there. We were frequent visitors to the lake shore part of West Kelowna. Beautiful homes.
Been watching this on CTV all day. This is a huge fire on par with Lahina other than locals are not caught with out notice.
My previous hairdresser lived part of the yr in Kelowna, where she grew up. She talked about it a lot and it sounded beautiful.
My previous hairdresser lived part of the yr in Kelowna, where she grew up. She talked about it a lot and it sounded beautiful.
West Kelowna is a town of about 20k population, this wildfire struck near the northern boundary of the town during a night of strong winds, and the population had been warned to evacuate as the fires were expected to exhibit strong growth.
Embers from the blaze have reportedly crossed Okanagan Lake which is only about a mile wide at this point, and started spot fires in Kelowna, a city of 200,000 population that had some major fire damage in 2003. So far these spot fires have been contained and dealt with. It remains very dry but the winds are slowly decreasing. I live about 150 miles southeast of Kelowna near the US border and we have had variable amounts of smoke from these and other distant fires all day, a blood-red sun, and falling temperatures after a five day heat wave.
I agree that some fires are being deliberately set and don’t rule out arson in any specific case but the weather pattern has been such that one would expect a lot of fires this summer in BC and the Northwest Territories. The Quebec fires that started up in May appeared more suspicious. There was an odd pattern of spontaneous and simultaneous combustion for no obvious reason. The BC fires have been coming and going at random and it was evident from the weather situation that any fires underway yesterday would become very difficult to control. Unfortunately, the northern portion of west Kelowna was downwind from a large fire and nothing could be done to stop its advance.
Getting back to this potential problem of arson, we are not going to see much action from government or media, it does not fit their narrative to explore whether or not any fires are being deliberately set, even though in one case somebody in Alberta was recently convicted in provincial court for starting numerous wildfires in 2021.
A provincial state of emergency would not mean much as the province has generally speaking been on high alert all summer, especially in fire-prone regions, and there has been a campfire ban since May.
Across the lake is a provincial park. At night, no lights!
Yep - I think so too. “Climate Change” people to add fuel for their agenda fire.
I just came down through there yesterday. From yesterday til today it’s far worse. Little fires they just let burn out of control.
I just drove from BC’s northern border with Yukon Territory to it’s southern border with the US. I never saw ANY flames but the THICK smoke was nearly constant for the full distance (approximately 800 miles).
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