West Kelowna fire crews made quick work of a wildfire at the bottom of Powers Creek Canyon off Glencoe and Windt roads Wednesday evening.
While the cause of the blaze is under investigation, it is believed to have been human caused and is considered suspicious.
Smoke was first spotted around 7 p.m. by nearby residents.
“When the first arriving crew got in the area they realize that the smoke coming up on the canyon wasn’t something minor like a barbecue or something like that on on a person’s deck, so they asked dispatch to elevate the call up to ‘First alarm Wildland’,” West Kelowna Assistant Fire Chief Darren Lee said. “Then when they saw the amount of smoke coming out of the canyon and got a little bit better size on it they called for a second alarm which brings a few more of our resources out.”
A crew of about 19 firefighters accessed the steep canyon from Aberdeen Rd. in the Glenrosa neighbourhood.
They found a smoldering fire about six metres square burning on the ground and in some larger logs.
“They got down there and we’re able to get a guard dug around and we actually just put a portable pump in the creek into Powers Creek,” Lee said.
No evacuations alerts or orders were issued, but West Kelowna RCMP stood by to assist, as the fire was very close to numerous neighbourhoods.
B.C. Wildfire crews were called in to assist, but were called off within 15 minutes when local firefighters got the blaze under control, Lee said.
Lee said the blaze will be reported to the Regional District of the Central Okanagan because it may have burned in Glen Canyon Regional Park.
Investigators have yet to pin point the cause, but found an abandoned transient camp nearby.
“We treat anything like that as human-caused and therefore suspicious and as to the actual cause, there’s nothing that really indicates that right now,” Lee said. “Our fire investigator had a look at it tonight and wasn’t able to determine if it was smoking material or an old campfire, or anything like that. But he’s just saying it’s obvious that it’s human caused from where it is and and he would consider that one suspicious.”
Because the fire burned in a steep, treed canyon, the brisk wind blowing at the time of the call did not affect the fire’s behaviour Lee said.
Crews will return to the site of the blaze in the morning to assess hot spots, but determined staying in the dark would be too dangerous due to the steep location.
Lee said he’s pleased with the result of their quick action Wednesday night considering fire situations that have quickly escalated in previous years.
“Anytime we’re dealing with summertime in the Okanagan people are very nervous and cognizant of fire and we’ve had a lot of fire history up hearings on Glenrosa and stuff like that so I’m sure people are glad we have the much more positive outcome than some of the big ones we’ve had up here.”
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