The Keremeos Creek wildfire burning 21 kilometres southwest of Penticton, Aug. 2, 2022.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/B.C. Wildfire Service
August 03, 2022 - 11:58 AM
There’s a window of opportunity to make significant gains on the Keremeos Creek wildfire burning 21 kilometres southwest of Penticton and crews are taking advantage of it.
The number of firefighters assigned to the job rose from 229 yesterday to 252 today, Aug. 3.
“We had an additional couple of folks come in to help us out,” said Marg Drysdale, fire information officer with B.C. Wildfire Service.
The number of helicopters increased from eight to 10. Four pieces of heavy equipment have been on the job both days.
“One reason we brought in extra crews is because we have window of opportunity to get a really good handle on things,” Drysdale said, referring to conditions as “good firefighting weather.”
Today’s forecast is calling for clouds and a high of 22 Celsius at Apex Mountain Resort, the closest community to the wildfire. Tomorrow’s weather will only see a high of 13 C and a high likelihood of precipitation.
Sunny skies and higher temperatures are in the forecast for the days following this period of coolness.
From the ground and in the air, efforts are being concreted toward the eastern flank of the wildfire.
READ MORE: Apex Mountain preparing to use snow-making machines against wildfire
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/B.C. Wildfire Service
The size of the fire – 2,790 hectares – was last updated yesterday. Drysdale says that number will see some growth due to the planned ignitions that have been happening over the past two days.
“But I don’t think there was additional growth to perimeter other than that,” she said.
This morning, the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen expanded its evacuation alert to include 41 more properties – mostly near the Grand Oro Road area in Areas G and I – bringing the new total of properties under alert to 479.
There are still 324 properties under evacuation order in the regional district, which includes the community of Apex.
Additional evacuation alerts and orders have been issued by the Penticton Indian Band.
Highway 3A has reopened after “a long night shift of monitoring and safeguarding homes,” according to a wildfire service Facebook post. “Crews welcome the sunrise and prepare to turn over to the day shift.”
Those working the graveyard shift are now at the base camp in Oliver sleeping in an air conditioned hanger.
“We appreciate the understanding of the public, the securing of this line will allow the highway to remain open for the foreseeable future.”
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