Blaze flares near homes in Kelowna neighbourhood
City, BC Wildfire Service crews tackle forest fire in North Glenmore
As soon as Leah Babington was able to park on Yates Road in Kelowna, she torn out of her car, ripped off her high heels and started running.
A wildfire was blazing and smoking behind her house in the Orchard View Estates gated community at 450 Yates Rd., and her husband, Ryan Perchak, was home with their golden retriever, Tiggs, and their cat, Ollie.
“I was stopped at this yellow police tape and told I couldn’t go in, so I got on the phone,” said an out-of-breath Babington.
“My husband is in the house and he’s been told there isn’t an evacuation order, but if he comes out he won’t be allowed back in. So he’s watering everything down and waiting to hear what to do next.”
It was just after 1 p.m. on Friday, and Yates Road just north of Watson Road was lined with people staring at the bush fire that had quickly turned into a forest fire and was aggressively marching up the mountain.
Platoon Capt. Tim Light of the Kelowna Fire Department said in a news release the fire, which appears to have been caused by kids, grew to four hectares.
“First-arriving crews were met with a Rank 3-4 fire with some candling trees. The fire was in steep terrain and difficult to access,” Light said.
A staging area for firefighters, police and ambulance crews had been set up in front of Orchard View Estates.
City of Kelowna and BC Wildfire Service firefighters were already on the ground dousing the blaze so it didn’t move closer to homes on Yates Road.
In a span of 15 minutes, three air tankers flew low overhead and dropped wide sprays of bright-red fire retardant.
What made the Yates Road fire terrifying was its proximity to North Glenmore subdivisions — the stretch parallel to Glenmore Road and the hundreds of homes in the Wilden planned community uphill.
By 2:30 p.m., the residents of 933 homes in the area were put on evacuation alert and told they may be asked to flee their home at a moment’s notice if the fire threatened their properties any further.
Meantime, city and provincial firefighters continued to battle the blaze on the ground and from the air to box the fire in and stop its spread.
By 3 p.m., the BC Wildfire Service was reporting good progress in getting the upper hand on the fire.
At 4 p.m., the fire was classified “in good standing,” which means it was somewhere between out of control and contained.
Meantime, Central Okanagan Emergency Operations declared the fire “held,” another term for “in good standing.” It refers to a blaze that fire crews have determined is not likely to spread beyond existing or pre-determined boundaries, unless the wind changes unpredictably.
The fire department said no homes were burned. But, as a precautionary measure, the evacuation alert for the 933 homes remained in place overnight.
Light said investigators ruled the fire was human caused, adding they had “dealt with two minor males who have admitted to playing with a lighter at the base of the mountain.”