The White Rock Lake wildfire, Aug. 6, 2021.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Kane Blake
August 08, 2021 - 9:13 AM
The White Rock Lake wildfire burning near Vernon didn’t see much growth overnight as the weather has been working in firefighters' favour.
The wildfire is currently mapped at 55,000 hectares and only saw a few 100 hectares worth of growth overnight, said B.C. Wildfire Service information officer Forrest Tower.
Fire activity has been stable due to the precipitation throughout the area.
Moving into next week, hotter and drier weather is expected so crews are trying to get ahead today, he said, adding 20 more firefighters have been added to current resources.
Today, crews will continue to focus on a northern finger of the fire, in areas around Monte Lake, to reduce the spread of the fire further northeast, he said.
“We are trying to put in guards to hold but getting into next week, we’ll probably be challenged so they’re really trying to put in that work when we have a bit of that weather opportunity,” Tower said.
The other main area of focus is near Okanagan Lake along Westside Road. Two nights ago, the fire started to creep down the west shore of the lake and came within a few hundred feet of residences, so that area will be the focus for new fire crews and existing structure protection crews, he said.
Yesterday, Vernon’s mayor called on residents to stay out of the area as a convoy of vehicles was seen trying to get a glimpse of the fire.
READ MORE: Vernon mayor urging residents to stay away from wildfire
“It is always an issue whenever there’s a fire right near large urban areas. It’s always an interesting thing for the public to look at and I think sometimes people don’t understand it may be interesting but it does impede our traffic,” Tower said.
He said he hasn't seen operations halted in the last few days on the White Rock Lake wildfire due to people trying to see the fire, but it has happened in other instances.
“Random members of the public shouldn’t be going into alert areas unnecessarily, it really just adds to the chaos if we do need to put that on order,” Tower said.
Last night, the City of Kamloops rescinded an evacuation alert due to the wildfire. Vernon also rescinded much of its evacuation alert in the city as did the Thompson Nicola Regional District for Electoral Area L and City of Armstrong.
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