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Penticton  

Fire spooks locals

The wildfire north of Princeton burnt large swaths of dry grass, and frayed the nerves of locals but otherwise was kept from destroying any homes or structures.

The fire began around 6 p.m. Sunday evening and soon grew to 60 hectares in size due to wind and an abundance of dry fuel. Overnight it exploded to 180 hectares, where it has stayed largely uncontained for most of Monday.

It was obvious where fire crews had focused their attention as the burnt patches of ground curled around homes and buildings. 

Bob Stephens' home was extremely close to the fire which torched all the grass and most of the trees up to the roadside across from his driveway. He said even without an evacuation alert or order, he got his wife and three-year-old grand daughter off the property immediately.

"I was totally concerned it was going to jump," he said. "I got the wife and the baby out, down to friends right away." 

"I had four (fire) trucks in here and they sprayed it all down and were just kind of waiting. They were here until 12:30 a.m. or 1 a.m."

Stephens had nothing but praise for the Princeton Fire Department, the Forestry fire suppression crews and his neighbours for helping save his land and family. 

Melissa Birchard and Clint Hawking live a little further south than the Stephens. They too evacuated some of their furrier family members as soon as they saw the smoke. 

"We were pretty worried," Birchard said. They moved their horses to the Princeton Fair Grounds, about three kilometres from the fire.  

Hawkings said he was prepared to do what he could to try and keep the fire off their property. 

"I was dragging hoses out and getting sprinklers ready, I'm not sure what I could do but I was getting ready."

Brad Tamas who lives on Osprey Lake Road said it seemed as though the ditches had not been mowed this year. The grass at the roadside was much thicker and taller than perhaps it should have been. 

"Usually they keep it knocked down. I've seen the road crews do it before, but not this year," he said. 

Perry Harris who lives on Huey Road said he was packing his motorhome just in case he had to make a quick exit with his dog. 

"I just thought, 'maybe'. It was all on the hillside, I had everything prepared to go last night" he said. "It didn't take long for it to run down the hill. That grass fire moved pretty quick."

Harris said he helped his friends get their horses moved and otherwise chatted with neighbours as they filled his property to get a better look at the flames. 

"People have got to realize how quick things can change, your life can just change."  

Everybody Castanet spoke with said the fire had filled the area with smoke this morning, but had cleared up and they felt they were largely out of immediate danger.



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