The Good Creek fire burning in Okanagan Mountain Park on July 18.

(MARSHALL JONES / iNFOnews.ca)

CENTRAL OKANAGAN - It’s tempting to view the Good Creek fire burning in Okanagan Mountain Park through the lens of the 2003 fire but to B.C. Wildfire it’s the least of their current concerns.

Other than location — the new fire is burning right in the path of the old and within site of the entire Central Okanagan — the two bear little resemblance.

“This fire is still a threat but there’s not the fuel there was in 2003,” fire information officer Noelle Kekula said. “It burned hot and heavy in 2003. There was decades of fuel built up in there. There just hasn’t been the time for it to build up again.”

After assessing the 16 fires currently burning in the Okanagan complex, Kekula says Good Creek, while giving off a lot of smoke, is at the bottom of the list and was fought only with helicopters today, as ground crews were needed elsewhere.

Kekula says fire officials must walk a fine line with a fire like Good Creek that is evoking an emotional response from people who lived through the 2003 fire. That year, a lightning strike hit Squally Point near Rattlesnake Island and ignited 50 years of unburned fuel collected throughout the park. It took several days but residents watched as it moved swiftly and certainly across the park — as it is doing now — toward Kelowna and by then it was unstoppable. It consumed 239 homes. 

This year, the fire looks visibly different at night compared to even the Mount Eneas fire burning in much the same conditions as 2003. Mount Eneas and other fires burning in areas largely untouched by fire for decades demand greater attention. 

“We don’t want people to panic but we don’t want them to let down their guard, either,” she added.

The other fires in the complex are all closer to structures, she added, or have other reasons for being a priority.

“We are managing accordingly,” Kekula added.

The Central Okanagan Regional District has issued an evacuation alert for houses at the end of Lakeshore Drive near Okanagan Mountain Park and B.C. Wildfire ground and air crews are concentrating efforts there and only there.

The fire was last estimated this afternoon, July 19, as being at least 340 hectares in size and growing.

To contact a reporter for this story, email John McDonald or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2018