A crew member responding to the McDougall Creek wildfire.

Image Credit: TWITTER/BCGovFireInfo

More than 10,000 people were evacuated in the face of the McDougall Creek Wildfire that tore through homes in and around West Kelowna last week.

While many have been able to return home, 2,381 were still on evacuation order as of 10 a.m. today, Aug. 28, according to Regional District of Central Okanagan chair Loyal Wooldridge, speaking at a news conference.

Some of those, such as people living along the Westside Road from Fintry and north, will likely be home today but it may take longer for neighbourhoods like the Smith Creek area.

West Kelowna fire chief Jason Brolund the wildfire is still burning out of control, but the battle against the blaze is now in the hills above the community, "not in the streets and neighbourhoods." He  highlighted gains in the battle, with evacuation orders lifting for more than 1,000 properties since Friday, including Rose Valley Elementary School in West Kelowna, where he says teachers have gone back in to start setting up for classes.

The BC Wildfire Service said more than 250 firefighters and field staff continue to battle the Grouse complex of fires around Okanagan Lake, with more than two-thirds devoted to the 126-square-kilometre McDougall Creek fire that swept down on West Kelowna on Aug. 17.

There have been a number of controlled burns in order to secure many neighbourhoods but weather prevented some of the planned burns in the Smith Creek area yesterday. It's hoped that those can be conducted today and people can return home soon.

In other neighbourhoods, like West Kelowna Estates, there is significant damage to the infrastructure, not just homes. The BC Hydro power lines, for example, have been burned and need to be replaced.

There's also some damage to roadways, and officials are looking at their ability to deliver safe drinking water to neighbourhoods.

As crews have been able to get into the fire damaged area the count of properties with serious structural damage has increased to 189 from 184.

Lake Okanagan Resort, which counts as one property, had 150 units damaged so the total count of housing units lost could be as high as 239. While many of the properties were resort units or time-shares, there were individual homes there as well. There was no mention of whether those were damaged.

The tally for properties with significant damage includes 94 in the regional district lands north of West Kelowna, primarily Traders Cove, Wilson’s Landing and properties accessed off Bear Creek Road.

There are 69 properties in West Kelowna, 19 in Westbank First Nation, four in Kelowna and three in Lake Country with serious structural damage.

Emergency officials are in the process of setting up the physical equipment, such as busses, needed to provide those with the most serious damage the opportunity to visit their properties, along with emotional supports.

“I think we can all agree that the loss of one’s home is probably one of the most horrible things that can happen so we are really mindful that the first persons that should go to see lost homes are the ones whose home is lost,” Sally Ginter, Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre Director, said at the news conference.

She did not give any time frame as to when those visits may happen.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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