Another year, another forest fire, another evacuation alert.
For West Kelowna mayor Doug Findlater, fire season is old hat.
In 2009, for example, approximately 13,000 residents, or half of West Kelowna’s population at the time, were placed on either evacuation order or alert when two fires raged through Glenrosa and Rose Valley.
Now, Glenrosa is on an evacuation alert again, with the Law Creek fire having grown from a lightning strike on Tuesday evening to eight hectares on Friday afternoon.
Today, at 12:51 a.m., Central Okanagan Emergency Operations issued an alert for 198 properties and approximately 495 residents. This afternoon, CORE reduced the number of properties on evacuation alert because of the Law Creek fire, stating the new number of properties on alert is now 69.
“It’s not the main body of Glenrosa; it’s upper Glenrosa, the rural part where the acreages are,” Findlater said of the Law Creek fire. “I know people have been moving vehicles out of the area, getting their horses out and so on in anticipation that (the fire) could go that way.
“We know the drill. We were through this in 2009 where all of Glenrosa was evacuated. People are pretty adept and able to respond to it. People are nervous, even in the main area of Glenrosa that’s not in the alert, but people are starting to take precautions.”
Findlater says he’s in the evacuation alert zone and he’s taking “steps to be out of the way if need be.”
Findlater added the Law Creek fire “was never considered a big threat, and then the wind whipped it up (Thursday) night. That helped it spread; it became more of a threat.”
He said fire crews are focusing on the Mount Eneas fire near Peachland and the Good Creek fire in Okanagan Mountain Park, but that he’s heard “aircraft all day (on the Law Creek fire), and that’s always a good sign.”
A second fire burning near West Kelowna is the Carrot Mountain fire, above Smith Creek. It was estimated to be 0.1 of a hectare as of Friday afternoon. Findlater said if it’s not out, it’s very close to being out.
“That Carrot Mountain fire, for the most part if it were going to burn downhill into Smith Creek, it would have to go through the burn from two or three years ago. There’s not much fuel there. Similarly, the Glenrosa fire, if it were to burn down the mountain towards Gorman Bros. mill, it’s going to run into the fire we had in 2009.”
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