Crews jump on wildfire below Hwy. 3

A BC Wildfire crew was mopping up Tuesday after a wildfire threatened several East Bench properties late Monday evening in Osoyoos.

The blaze, which started just below Highway 3 above 25th Street and 48th Avenue, burned down the slope toward agricultural properties along the bottom of Anarchist Mountain.

The Anarchist Mountain Fire Department, which responds to calls within the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, was summoned around 10:30 p.m. Members of the Osoyoos fire department were also dispatched and were later joined by a BC wildfire crew stationed in Penticton.

“It could have got worse if they hadn’t got on it right away,” said Osoyoos Fire Chief Rick Jones. “Anarchist Mountain and Forestry did an awesome job attacking it from top and bottom.”

The Osoyoos fire department supplied water and stood by “in case the fire came down through the canyon and got into the houses,” said Jones. “We were prepared as back up for Anarchist, too.” Anarchist Mountain resident Herman Commandeur said he went down for a look at the fire after his niece and her friend, who were visiting, reported seeing the blaze on their way back from town.

“It was quite a significant fire,” he said. “The flames were good and high at the edges.”

Commandeur said he spent about 90 minutes watching the blaze from Hwy. 3 before determining it wasn’t going to threaten his Deerfoot Road property.

“It’s very dry out here right now,” he said. “I wanted to check into the possibility it was going to get worse and come up the mountain. We were wondering if we needed to pack some clothes and prepare for the possibility for evacuation.”

Anarchist Mountain Chief Urs Grob said the fire was contained when he left the fire scene around 8 a.m. Tuesday to grab a couple of hours of sleep.

Although fire has a natural tendency to burn uphill, at night it will travel down a slope.

“That mountain heats up in the day time and at night when the valley’s cooling, that warm air drops into the valley,” Jones said.

“The fire goes because that creates a little air movement.”