BC

Fire crews from the Kamloops Fire Centre were busy with numerous lightning caused fires in the South Okanagan on Friday, July 20.

Photo: Contributed - Chris Loeppky

Lightning strikes caused a number of spot fires in the Central Interior on Friday.

Lightning strikes were witnessed up and down the Okanagan Valley when a storm hit mid-afternoon.

Fire Information Officer, Kevin Skrepnek says all six three-member attack crews based out of Penticton were called out to small spot fires near Oliver, Keremeos and Cawston.

"There was over a dozen fires yesterday," says Skrepnek. "But all small spot sized incidents. In a lot of cases, a single tree on fire that was struck by lightning or just a couple of metres by a couple of metres in size."

He says, just as was the case a few weeks ago, fire crews were aided by the heavy rain which accompanied the lightning storm.

As a result, none of those crews are still on the scene and will be spend Saturday patrolling the area to catch any flare-ups.

"The thing that we do want to caution though is we can see hold over lightning strikes. That's where we had a lightning strike yesterday but it's going to be simmering in the Earth right now. We're looking at a pretty warm day today. Once the heat of the day hits that area, sometimes as long as a week or two after the lightning has struck the Earth, we can see that fire flare up again."

Skrepnek adds it's not that uncommon.

"Last year up toward Cache Creek, we had three fires all flare up in a day and they all appeared to have been hold-overs from a lightning storm the week before."

If you see a wildfire, call toll free 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 on most cellular networks.

If you require information on fire use restrictions and forest closures, call toll free 1-888-336-7378.