Bear Creek Road residents gathered outside of Ben Stewart's office on Tuesday to ask when they will be allowed back on to their properties. He still hasn't been able to find out.

(GEORGINA WHITEHOUSE / iNFOnews.ca)

Angry residents evacuated due to the McDougall Creek wildfire turned on Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart for answers yesterday as to why they can’t go home.

And he promised to get them some answers within 24 hours. While it may not be what they wanted to hear, there is some news.

“They (emergency officials) have confirmed that, imminently, there’s going to be a change in the (evacuation) orders but they didn’t tell me exactly the time,” Stewart told iNFOnews.ca.

Turns out he was correct. The Central Okanagan emergency operations centre downgraded evacuation orders to alerts for several properties along Westside Road just after 5 p.m. today, Sept. 13. You can check the map orders and alerts here.

Those who met with Stewart yesterday were from the Bear Creek Road area, which leads into West Kelowna Estates, south of the provincial park.

READ MORE: Angry McDougall Creek wildfire evacuees give local MLA an earful

The news is not so good for them.

“In some areas of West Kelowna, they’re still without power so the fire department will have no water,” Stewart said. “They depend on the power for whatever is pumping the water. They need to know people have smoke detectors so life safety items are not compromised. The reality is, these people will be let in as soon as the life safety issues are put aside.”

BC Hydro is working flat out to restore power but 426 poles and 27 kilometres of power lines were destroyed.

In one area, where evacuees had returned, a fire did break out and the fire department had water to extinguish it so this is a very live issue, Stewart said,.

People who met with him were also afraid that their insurance would be void if inspectors could not get in within 30 days, which is almost up.

“It’s not a myth, but the Insurance Bureau of Canada confirmed today that it is not an issue,” Stewart said. “The reports have gone over to the resiliency centre so they actually have the documentation that the insurance companies need to show if there has been a loss or damage."

READ MORE: Shuswap vs West Kelowna: Two entirely different ways of communicating about fires

It's now been almost a month since the Aug. 17 wildfire damaged a total of 189 properties.

No total of how many homes or structures were actually destroyed has been provided. Lake Okanagan Resort, alone, had 150 housing units.

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