'Wall of fire' near airport

UPDATE: 12:25 p.m.

Quick action by Penticton firefighters prevented a grass fire from spreading to homes nearby on Sunday.

Smoke filled the sky after the grass fire ignited beside the Penticton Regional Airport just after 11:30 a.m.

Resident Edward Downing looked outside his condo building and saw flames coming from Mauer Log Homes.

“It was like a big wall of fire at one point and then that seemed to subside and turned to smoke,” he said. “But then that structure flared up.”

Downing said it was a wide grass fire at first, about 100 feet wide and eight feet high. The fire seemed to spread to a hut on the property. 

“It went to thick, really heavy smoke,” he said.

Penticton Fire Department said the fire is 75 per cent contained and was .42 kilometres in size.

"No structures are threatened at this time," said Penticton Fire Department on Twitter. 

Downing said multiple firefighters were on scene extinguishing the blaze and it looked to be put out as of 12:25 p.m.

Fire was pushed by strong winds but PFD was able to stop it before damaging the log homes and RVs on site. pic.twitter.com/dvZMldtmpY

— Penticton Fire Dept. (@pentictonfire) June 24, 2018