A brush fire between Highway 97 and a condo building in Kelowna late Monday night may have been accidentally started by homeless campers.
“There was some sleeping bags and you know just debris from street people living there,” Kelowna Fire Department Investigator Russ Van De Sype said.
The blaze was spotted just after 11 p.m. on the north side of Highway 97 between Burtch Avenue and Gordon Drive.
The Kelowna Fire Department spent more than a half hour pouring water on underbrush, tall pine trees and grass on a ten metre wide slope leading up to a retaining wall where the property line of the the Laurentian Heights condo complex begins.
“It was accidental,” Van De Sype said. “Ramifications could have been a lot more severe than what they actually were, so I’m glad that didn’t happen. Last thing we need is another apartment building emptied.”
It’s not known if a campfire or something else started the fire.
The fire shut down the highway for more than an hour to allow crews access to extinguish it.
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