Residents run hoses to brush fire, the second suspicious blaze in West Kelowna neighbourhood

West Kelowna firefighters and RCMP were called to a brush fire that began to spread into trees Friday afternoon after calls from residents in the 3700 block of Pleasantview Road.

While some residents took pictures of the growing flames, others grabbed their garden hoses to douse the blaze.

Assistant Fire Chief Chad Gartrell said the suspicious fire was the second of its kind in that particular stretch of forest near Glen Canyon.

“It was a smoldering rank one. When they got here, it started to climb into the ladder fuels a little bit, so rank two,” Gartrell said, noting the blaze had grown to about 6m x 6m.

Several other suspicious brush fires have been doused in West Kelowna in the last few months but no one has been arrested.

Gartrell said the wet weather made it easier to put out the fire.

“We were fortunate to have rain this afternoon,” said Gartrell. “We still have a fire rating of four late in September so that’s fairly rare at this time of year. So if we didn’t have this rain coming down, there’s definitely a chance it would have gotten away a little bit more than it did today.”

RCMP have taken over the investigation.