No immediate end in sight
There’s no telling how long two major fires will continue burning in the South Okanagan, an official from the BC Wildfire Service told reporters Tuesday.
“For me to predict the exact date (of extinguishment) would be foolish, however, those do remain a priority for us and we’ll continue to see crews working on them until they’re no longer a threat to the communities,” said Rob Schweitzer during an update on the B.C. fire situation.
Both of this region’s fires — Thomas Creek near Okanagan Falls and Nk’Mip Creek near Osoyoos — were among 34 wildfires of note burning Tuesday in B.C.
The estimated size of the Nk’Mip Creek fire was increased Tuesday by 3,000 hectares to 16,000 thanks to better mapping, while the Thomas Creek fire size remained unchanged at 10,300 hectares.
Schweitzer said crews reported “steady progress” over the past week, while the number of active fires remained below 250.
“If we continue to see the down trend in new starts, we’ll be able to keep our resources focused on those existing fires, rather than having to pull them away to new starts,” said Schweitzer.
But it will be a while yet before the Thomas Creek and Nk’Mip fires — both still deemed out of control of control — are over.
“Usually our tactics on big fires like that are once the fire has moved away from the immediate threat to the community, we’ll continue to build machine guard around the permitter of the fire, flanking the fire, then removing the fuel between the guard and where the fire is so that it actually burns itself out in some cases. Then we just keep moving into the centre of the fire,” explained Schweitzer.
Since it sparked July 19 in the hills east of Highway 97 about halfway between Oliver and Osoyoos, the fire has steadily marched north and east — away from the towns towards rural communities in the Anarchist Mountain and Mount Baldy areas.
That’s where crews are focusing their structure protection efforts now after demobilizing some equipment in residential areas near McKinney Road, Nk’Mip Road and Shrike Hill, where one home has been confirmed lost to flames.
Approximately 1,500 properties are under an evacuation order or alert.
Similarly, the Thomas Creek wildfire has also been moving north and east since it lit up July 11 about three kilometres northeast of Okanagan Falls.
The fire remained most active Tuesday on the north flanks near Derenzy and McLean Clan lakes.
Approximately 724 properties are under an evacuation order or alert.
Finally, the Garrison Lake fire burning approximately 30 kilometres south of Princeton near Eastgate in Manning Park was pegged Tuesday at 8,200 hectares, unchanged from a day earlier.
Approximately 200 properties are under an evacuation order alert, including those in the small community of Eastgate, where structure protection equipment was being sent Tuesday.