Fire burns near Zip Zone

Photo: Contributed - Jim Van Der Lee

UPDATED: 6:21 p.m.

The fire is now 100 per cent contained, according to fire information officer Kelsey Winter.

Thought to be human caused, It burned three acres and crews are now working on digging guards.

According to Kevin Bennett with Zip Zone, the fire was quite close, about 500 meters away, but up at the top of a hill overlooking the park.

Operations manager Jason Braun spotted the fire at around 11 a.m., called the fire department and then went with a fire extinguisher to investigate, but was not able to do much to combat the fire.

Peachland fire crews arrived in about 10 minutes, and the Forestry Service teams about 35 minutes later. They hit the fire with five amphibious bombers plus a larger plane, which dropped fire retardant.

"Our park was not affected, but the guests got a grandstand view of the water bombers flying low over their heads as they zipped," he said. 

At around 3:30 p.m., five trucks with ground crew arrived and were working to douse the fire completely.

They were advised that the fire was contained, with little risk of spreading.

"The fire crews did a fantastic job" he said. "I’m seeing news reports saying the fire was human caused. I can’t corroborate that as I have no idea, but we do have security cameras on site at ZipZone and will be reviewing the footage to see if we have anything that may be of use to the investigative team."

UPDATED: 4:13 P.M.

The fire has over tripled in size and is now covering 3 hectares, according to Kelsey Winter, fire information officer for the Kamloops Fire Centre.

Despite this growth, fire crews have completely surrounded the blaze with fire retardant. 

ORIGINAL: 2:01 P.M.

A fire is burning in Peachland this afternoon, near the Zip Zone Peachland.

Reports of the fire were first called in around noon today. The fire is currently 0.7 hectares in size and exhibits Rank two behaviour, according to Kelsey Winter, fire information officer for the Kamloops Fire Centre. Rank two means the fire has visible, open flame, but there is little or no spread.

The Wildfire Management Branch has sent two tankers, four fixed-wing skimmers and a helicopter to battle the blaze. There are nine firefighters and one response officer on site. 

Fire crews have only just arrived, so tankers will be laying retardant along all four sides of the fire to "box" it and prevent it from spreading. 

Castanet will update this story as more information becomes available.