Contributed
UPDATE: 3:20 p.m
Weather conditions at the Keremeos Creek wildfire southwest of Penticton are allowing fire crews to attack more aggressively.
In a live broadcast Aug. 2, BC Wildfire Service Information Officer Brian Zandberg said Tuesday’s cooler temperatures helped the fight.
“We don’t see the fire growing. There was some ‘spiciness,’ as we say, along Highway 3A, I hear this afternoon, but we have a lot more personnel,” Zandberg said, referring to the fire activity near the highway that connects Penticton and Keremeos.
This highway has been closed since Tuesday afternoon with no expected reopening time.
Conditions were difficult for crews to attack the 2,800-hectare blaze, which forced the evacuation of more than 320 properties.
“It’s such a narrow canyon and people live right there under the Ponderosa pines. So we just continue to put a lot of our effort into monitoring those areas and whenever something comes up that we don’t like with, [we’re] bringing it back,” Zandberg said.
He said crews are changing to be “much, much more aggressive” on the fire now that temperatures and conditions are cooperating and there are enough boots on the ground — 229 to be exact, made up of BCWS personnel and members of fire departments from across the interior.
Up in the mountain village of Apex, which has been evacuated, crews are hard at work using the ski resort’s snow cannons.
“They have nine or 10 of them located around the lower village area extending down to their quad and triple chairs and the idea behind it is to protect the core assets of the Apex Resort … the chairlifts, the restaurants, the ski shops, cafes,” explained Molly Raine, fire prevention officer with Apex Volunteer Fire Rescue.
“Right now they’re soaking the surrounding areas, but they can just as quickly turn them to face the buildings and help them soak up.”
Zandberg said the outlook was positive for continued decisive action against the wildfire, but warned it could be a long road ahead.
“Given where it’s burning, it’s probably going to burn in some of that high country probably for a while.” But that doesn’t mean we can’t really calm things down… So we’re going to keep going really hard,” Zandberg said.
“Right now we are seeing an increase in fire behavior across the province. So that’s also something to keep in mind. But right now we have a good level of resources and more. So we’re just going to continue to stay really aggressive and work to implement the plans we have in place to deal with the current footprint of the fire and the critical values at risk in this area.”
For more information on resources for those at risk from the wildfire, click here.
UPDATE: 2 p.m
The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen will have a live update at 2:00pm on the Keremeos Creek wildfire situation.
Casey Richardson
UPDATE: 11:30 a.m
Castanet News reporter Casey Richardson is live in Yellow Lake with updates and insight on conditions at the Keremeos Creek wildfire. Check out the footage above.
Officials have just announced that Highway 3A will be closed between the Highway 97 interchange and Keremeos until further notice.
The Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Emergency Operations Center (RDOS EOC) has developed a procedure for residents with an evacuation order to temporarily access their properties.
Residents will need to request temporary access before 5pm for next day access. Residents in the evacuation order area can request a temporary access permit via email [email protected] or call 250-490-4231. Temporary access permits are only for life-and-death emergencies.
The purpose of temporary permits is to provide a way for residents to access their properties in a safe and orderly manner. RCMP and other private security control access and protect properties under evacuation. All residents without authorized access are asked to stay away from properties under evacuation orders.
Photo: Contributed
The southwest corner of the Keremeos Creek wildfire on Tuesday
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