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Penticton  

More air support for 2 fires

Two fires of note, Cool Creek and Old Tom Creek, will be getting renewed air and ground support again Monday after smoky conditions hindered BC Wildfire aircraft over the weekend. 

At Old Tom Creek, which is burning at 144 hectares seven kilometres west of Olalla and is classified as "out of control," a brief flare-up Sunday was contained. 

"Due to windy conditions, there was a small excursion on the eastern side of that fire yesterday but that was quickly rounded up by our crews, so they're just working on consolidation of existing containment lines on that fire," said fire information officer Steve Kada.

"Working on the western side there's some difficult terrain, dangerous terrain, they've got to work in on on that side. Heavy equipment has been re-deployed in that area."

At Cool Creek, another out-of-control fire burning at 6,000 hectares near Eastgate, firefighters will be gaining much-needed air support.

"Due to visibility and weather, smoke more so than weather, we couldn't get any aircraft up over the last couple of days," Kada said. 

"We did manage to get one light aircraft up yesterday afternoon as the visibility improved, so they assessed it and got a bit more of an accurate track of the location of the fire."

Heavy equipment and firefighters have now been tasked to the fire, and aviation resources will be deployed Monday as well.



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