‘Vigorous’ Keremeos Creek wildfire near Penticton grows, forces evacuations

The Keremeos Creek wildfire burning near Penticton in the Okanagan-Similkameen has triggered an evacuation order in the Apex Mountain Village area.

In an update posted Monday morning, the Apex Fire Brigade announced the order was being issued by the regional district in an effort to “protect the health, safety or welfare of a person or to limit damage to property due to wildfire.”

“Members of the RCMP and SAR will be expediting this action,” the post added. Updated later Monday afternoon, more than properties were added to an evacuation alert in the White Lake, Twin Lake, Highway 3 and Ollala communities.

EOC Update: Evacuation ALERT issued for Electoral Areas G and I due to Keremeos Creek wildfire August 1, 2022, 2:30 pm https://t.co/GKTs9ti0B8 pic.twitter.com/PA4ZyfieHa

— RDOS EOC (@EmergMgtRDOS) August 1, 2022

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As of the weekend, the fire was an estimated 437 hectares in size, however by Monday afternoon, the fire had grown to an estimated 2,264 hectares.

In a series of tweets, the BC Wildfire Service says they have deployed structural protection crews on homes and infrastructure “as needed.”

“Crews are actively building contingency lines on the south side of the ravine on Sheep Creek Road and building hand lines at the south of Green Mountain Road over to Highway 3A. Crews are also working along Green Mountain Road,” the wildfire agency wrote. “Roadways are an integral part of our safety plan and roads are kept open as much as is reasonably possible and as long as it is safe to do so. Operations are expected to impact Highway 3A periodically, from Twin Lakes to Olalla, as response continues.”

The agency tells CityNews the fire has grown substantially in size.

“We know it’s grown, it grew yesterday afternoon. You can see people posting about that on social media,” fire information officer Bryan Zandberg explained. “We’re seeing some rank-four fire behaviour so a pretty vigorous fire. A lot of candling trees — happening in more remote parts of the fire. So it is growing.”

The agency is ramping up its staffing levels on the Keremeos Creek fire, adding more crews are being brought in to help battle the flames. According to the service, 144 firefighters, nine helicopters, and four heavy equipment units are currently battling the blaze.

The BC Wildfire Service said Sunday that the fire had been “relatively quiet the last two days,” but that it was “displaying more active behaviour on the southwest corner near Highway 3A.” The service added that activity from the fire was “highly visible.”

Fire crews from across the province have been brought in to help battle this blaze.

Fire fighters from across province in #Penticton to help in fight against #keremeoscreek fire. Background is truck from Metchosin and just saw Celista truck roll by. For more info, @BCGovFireInfo or @EmergMgtRDOS #wildfire pic.twitter.com/ZlIF7sq85Y

— Shane Mills (@Shane_Mills) August 1, 2022

Apex Mountain Resort has also deployed its snow-making machines to fight flames, if necessary.

“Our crew worked tirelessly today alongside Apex Mountain Resort staff getting equipment ready, firesmarting properties and preparing for a worst case scenario,” the Apex Fire Brigade said Sunday.

Zandberg tells CityNews the BC Wildfire Service is working closely with a number of local agencies, including local First Nations. Work is also being coordinated with BC Hydro and other groups.

The cause of the Keremeos Creek wildfire remains under investigation. Discovered on July 29, the blaze came amid extreme temperatures and after dozens of lightning strikes hit parts of the Southern Interior region.

The BC Wildfire Service notes that much of the fire is burning in terrain that is “inoperable for air tanker and heavy machinery support.”

“There was some growth yesterday and it was in those inaccessible areas. They’re higher areas from what I understand, just a lot of ravines, gullies, and draws, quite difficult to get into. Again, we are building up our forces here so, really, our attention is just protecting people’s homes, Apex Resort, and all that infrastructure, transmission lines as well,” explained Zandberg, adding crews are also focused on keeping roads accessible.

With temperatures still high and crews continuing to face harsh conditions, Zandberg says the BC Wildfire Service is doing what it can to keep firefighters safe.

“It’s quite hot right now, we’re concerned for our crews with heat exhaustion and God forbid heatstroke, so we’ve got to set up a camp that’s safe. We’re still in COVID so we’ve got a COVID coordinator here to make sure that everybody stays healthy. There have been COVID outbreaks in other parts of the province and out of province in fire camps — we don’t want that, obviously, it would not help our efforts. It’s a challenge but we’ve got really good people and good supply lines to put those sorts of things in place,” he explained, adding some crews are also working overnight.

With files from Kareem Gouda