Wildfire rips through Kaleden
At least two buildings — including one home — were destroyed and 30 more were evacuated Tuesday afternoon as a wildfire tore through the community of Kaleden south of Penticton.
The fire was estimated at 5.5 hectares and considered not contained as of 7:30 p.m., according to BC Wildfire Service spokesman Max Birkner.
Two helicopters, two airplanes and 35 firefighters from the service were at the scene, along with firefighters from Kaleden, Penticton and Okanagan Falls.
Denis Gaudry, acting chief of the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department, said the home and outbuilding that were destroyed were located on Oak Avenue, where the fire is believed to have started in a stand of trees.
He said thick smoke prevented a more thorough damage assessment, “so we’re worried about what’s still out there.”
Gaudry said crews focused on protecting structures as spot fires sprang up in vineyards all around them. More evacuations were likely. “It will depend what happens between now and dark with the wind and whatever sort of little fires come up because we’re having to jump around,” Gaudry explained.
Among the first to be ordered out by police was Stephen Pickering, who lives on Ponderosa Drive.
“We had an officer come up the driveway and ask, if we didn’t mind, for us to leave just in case the wind changed and all that,” said Pickering, who immediately began loading his grandmother and three dogs into his truck to prepare to evacuate.
“And then three (officers) showed up and said we had to get going now. The fire was in our backyard. I saw open flame that jumped the road.”
Pickering tried to get back to his house to rescue a cat that he wasn’t able to grab initially, “but they didn’t let me. I didn’t have time.”
He turned on the irrigation system at his property before leaving and hoped the cement board and aluminum siding on his house would spare it from damage.
“Hopefully it will be OK,” Pickering said. “That stuff doesn’t burn too easily.”
FortisBC reported at 7 p.m. that it had cut power to 170 homes in the community of 1,200 people.
An emergency reception centre has been set up at the Penticton Community Centre.
Evacuees are asked to register in person or call 250-809-6561.