Backcountry closed to public
Access to area west of Summerland, Peachland restricted due to wildfire
Approximately 80 square kilometres of backcountry west of Summerland and Peachland has been closed to the public as crews continue waging war against the Finlay Creek wildfire.
The ban, announced Wednesday morning by the B.C. government, is tentatively set to last through Oct. 31 and contains limited exceptions for those who live or work in the area or are assisting with firefighting efforts.
The restricted area includes Darke Lake Provincial Park, Garnet Lake and Munro Lake Forest Service Road.
BC Wildfire Service chief information officer Kevin Skrepnek told a conference call with reporters Wednesday he wasn’t aware of any instances of the public interfering with the agency’s work on the Finlay Creek blaze, and described the ban as more of a precautionary measure.
“And, of course, we’re heading into a period, too, where we’re only a few days from hunting season, so this was more of a proactive step to protect public safety given that we’ve still got that fire rumbling around up there,” he said.
The fire was estimated at 1,000 hectares as of Wednesday afternoon, unchanged from Tuesday, with 47 personnel, 10 helicopters and 23 pieces of heavy equipment assigned to the blaze.
An evacuation order remains in place for 55 properties in Meadow Valley, while 111 properties within the Regional District of OkanaganSimilkameen are still under an evacuation alert. Another 300 properties near Peachland are also under alert.
RDOS information officer Cameron Baughen said a total of 110 evacuees had registered at the emergency reception centre in Summerland as of Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, officials are continuing with a hands-off approach to the Diamond Creek fire, which last week crossed the Canada-U.S. border and has now scorched about 5,500 hectares on the B.C. side about 70 kilometres west of Osoyoos between Cathedral and Manning provincial parks.
“We’re monitoring it quite closely. Given the area the fire’s burning in — very challenging terrain, steep terrain and for the time right now it’s a relatively remote area — it’s not something we’re going to be tackling head on,” said Skrepnek.
The service is, however, doing periodic air surveys, organizing equipment to build guards and determining when, and if, it will attack.
“At this time, though,” added Skrepnek, “the only real impacts of this fire are the smoke we’re getting throughout southern B.C. that it’s contributing to, and the closure of Cathedral Provincial Park as well as the private lodge up there.”
Since April 1, the service has responded to 1,212 fires across B.C. that have scorched 1.2 million hectares, said Skrepnek, who pegged the cost of the fight at $473 million to date.