Winds kick up Keremeos Creek wildfire flames, weather still a concern

The Keremeos Creek wildfire continues to create challenges for crews battling flames in the south Okanagan.

New evacuation orders and alerts were issued Thursday as the fire moved amid high winds. Parts of the Village of Keremeos were among those affected, with residents told to prepare to leave at a moment’s notice, if required.

The current situation is not one locals are unfamiliar with.

“Keremeos … has gone through a lot of emergencies in the past with flooding, high water,” explained Mayor Manfred Bauer. “We had the … mountain burning right across the river, so I think people are fairly well prepared mentally and otherwise, in terms of packing a bag or be ready if you have to.”

He adds emergency services are at the ready, should the situation change.

“I think we’re a fairly well oiled machine because we’re all working very well together with the regional district, the Okanagan-Similkameen.”

Open Gallery 6 items

Bauer commends the communication from the BC Wildfire Service, noting regular updates are being provided multiple times a day by officials there and across the RDOS.

According to the BC Wildfire Service, the Keremeos Creek fire is now an estimated 4,250 hectares, still burning southwest of Penticton.

Thursday proved challenging for crews, with winds kicking up on the southern part of the fire.

“It was pushing the fire up against Highway 3A and also pushing it a little southwest toward the community of Olalla,” explained fire information officer Bryan Zandberg.

“We were just not comfortable with what the fire was doing. We were challenged by it, our firefighters were quite challenged by the fire activity throughout the afternoon.”

That situation prompted a recommendation to the RDOS to evacuate Olalla and expand alerts in other areas.

“We also requested that Highway 3A be closed because we had some embers crossing the highway, so we had to respond really quickly and knock those out,” Zandberg told CityNews.

Related articles: 

• Parts of Keremeos now under evacuation alert, Highway 3A closed

• B.C. wildfire season sees slow start, to ramp up through August: outlook

• Smoke from Interior wildfires trigger Air Quality Statement for the Okanagan

Temperatures did dip Thursday night into Friday morning, providing some relief.

Zandberg says crews are assigned to the Keremeos Creek fire around the clock.

“Around 3 a.m. the fire kind of got quiet. This morning it’s been fairly compliant, lots of smoke in the area,” he said Friday morning, though adding temperatures were rising, with activity expected to pick up through the day.

Higher temperatures are once again on the way for the region through the weekend, with concerns remaining about dry conditions in the southern Interior.

“We have almost 400 firefighters on this fire now, we’re just shy, we’re at 397. There are two parts to that number: one is the structural people, a lot of people from fire departments make up the structural folks and they’re there to look after the properties, the ranches, the houses … Everybody’s properties and their values there,” Zandberg told CityNews.

More than 220 wildland firefighters make up the second part of the overall personnel number.

Supporting these people are dozens of pieces of heavy equipment and several aircraft.

-With files from Andrew Cowie and John Ackermann