Forest fire in Okanagan Mountain Park will likely self-extinguish

It’s a blaze thats attracting plenty of attention and maybe sparking some memories of the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park wildfire.

A small forest fire is burning in the same park, across the lake from Peachland, and it will continue to burn for a while yet.

Officials have decided to let the fire burn off some of the ground fuel that has been accumulating in the park for the past 14 years.

“We’re keeping a close eye on the fire,” said BC Wildfire Service spokesperson Dale Bojahra.”We’ve established some trigger areas, where if the fire were to get to, it may warrant some action. But given the fire-weather, the fuel conditions and the time of year we don’t believe this fire is in any way going to threaten any public or private property. So the best we can do actually is let this fire burn.”

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On Tuesday morning, the fire size was estimated at six hectares with little growth happening.

“It is burning and behaving in the way we are expecting it to,” said information officer Justine Hunse.

There were no lightning strikes in the area so it’s assumed the fire was human caused.