The Central Okanagan emergency operations centre says residents of 16 properties along Bear Creek Road are allowed to go home, although they remain on evacuation alert and must be ready to leave again if the McDougall Creek wildfire flares again. Burned trees are seen above a neighbourhood in West Kelowna, B.C. during a visit by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in West Kelowna, B.C., Friday, Aug. 25, 2023.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marissa Tiel
September 14, 2023 - 12:03 PM
The area under evacuation order around a wildfire in West Kelowna is gradually shrinking.
The Central Okanagan emergency operations centre says residents of 16 properties along Bear Creek Road are allowed to go home, although they remain on evacuation alert and must be ready to leave again if the McDougall Creek wildfire flares.
Evacuation orders were lifted for more than two dozen other properties on Wednesday, weeks after thousands of residents were chased out by the fast-moving wildfire.
The centre says about 350 properties are still under evacuation order and close to 5,000 are on evacuation alert as the fire remains out of control, nearly a month after it was reported.
Go here to see a map with the latest evacuation orders and alerts.
About half of the 400 structures or homes that were destroyed in B.C.'s wildfires this summer were lost in the Kelowna area.
There are almost 400 fires are still burning in the province in what has been a record season for area burned, and about 160 of those fires remain out of control.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2023.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2023