Photo: BC Wildfire

Renters staying at cabins along Glen Lake Road evacuated on Saturday due to the fast-growing wildfire.

Jeffery Froehlich's parents own two rental properties roughly one kilometre down Glen Lake Road.

Froehlich says the guests could see the fire and self-evacuated.

"They got a hold of my parents and said there is a fire, and we are leaving. That is how we found out about it," he said, explaining he and his parents were at the properties late Saturday night getting things in order.

"We brought down some equipment that we have, and then we went up quite early Sunday morning because we knew that the road was going to end up being blocked off. We were there at 6 a.m. and pulled the rest of our equipment out."

The fire was discovered at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, according to BCWS.

Froehlich says they also set up structure protection.

"We then waited for the structure protection unit from the Peachland fire hall to come up and show them what we had done, and they took over doing the rest of the cabins up there," Froehlich added.

On Sunday afternoon, an evacuation order was issued for eight properties. As of Sunday night, the wildfire was listed at 450 hectares in size, exploding from just 10 hectares at the start of the day.

According to the Central Okanagan Emergency Operation Centre, the evacuation order covers six recreational properties on Glen Lake FSR, including 5503 Glen Lake FSR, along with two recreational properties at the 15/16-kilometre marker of the Glen Lake FSR. An interactive map of evacuation zones is here.

"The fire started about two and a half or three kilometres from our property," Froehlich said.

"By the time we got our equipment loaded and left Saturday night, it was already visible further from the valley. The wind in that valley, nine times out of ten, blows west to east, and so thankfully that wind pushed the fire up the hill to Eneas Lakes Provincial Park, and there is nothing up there except for the lakes."

"It is blowing away from all the cabins on the lake, so that is good," Froehlich said.

BCWS says the fire is believed to be human-caused, but no additional details were provided.