Fire still smouldering

With stumps still burning and flames smouldering in dry grass, the fire threat is keeping evacuated residents out of their homes along Westside Road.

Power poles have been knocked to the ground, and trees have brought down power lines, cutting electricity and communication networks in the area of the Bear Creek wildfire.

Bruce Smith with CORD Emergency says due to infrastructure being down, the evacuation order remains in effect for the Traders Cove subdivision and Bear Creek Provincial Park.

“It’s based on the fire activity – it’s just not safe to send people home yet,” Smith said Tuesday as media toured the area.

Dale Bojhara, with the BC Wildlife Service, said burned forest fuels came close to people’s homes.

“Things are going very, very well. We are fortunate that a lot of the fire is quite accessible by road, not a lot of inaccessible areas on the fire, so we can pretty much deliver water anywhere we need to,” said Bojhara. “We are also benefiting from that wet summer we had. It’s only recently started to dry out.”

With temperatures returning to seasonal norms, Bojhara says it doesn’t take a lot to have a wind-driven wildfire in the Okanagan.

“You can have a fine-fuel driven fire… how deep it burns and how intense it is, that is the underlying drought piece,” he explained.

The Bear Creek wildfire is still considered a Rank 1, smouldering ground fire, and firefighter Matt Melville says that means crews have to dig to extinguish hot spots.

“We have been establishing a fuel-free (zone), followed up by making hand guards, and a hose lay,” said Melville. “We have been able to go in and make sure it’s safe for all of our workers to go in, by doing danger tree assessing and falling.”

There has been no growth on the fire, which remains at 52.5 hectares and 75 per cent contained.

Photo: Jen Zielinski