Twenty-five new wildfires, sparked by an ongoing lightning storm, are burning in the Kamloops Fire District, with two in the North Okanagan and 12 in the Shuswap.
“These fires are being actioned by crews and aerial reconnaissance is being used to assess these fires,” the BC Wildfire Service said Friday morning — when the region had just eight new wildfires before more were discovered.
Of the 25, all but two were discovered on Friday, with those two found on Thursday.
One of the North Okanagan fires, located near Miriam Creek, is burning around eight kilometres east of Armstrong. It was discovered Friday and hasn’t yet been sized.
The second is well east of Vernon, situated almost halfway between Lumby and Cherryville. The Bryers Road fire was also discovered Friday and was sized at 0.2 of a hectare.
Earlier Friday, B.C. Wildfire posted one fire as being east of Kelowna, in Graystokes Provincial Park, but it was removed in the afternoon.
It was the same for a fire discovered on Friday well away from Princeton.
In the South Okanagan, a fire is burning around 11 km north of Olalla.
Meanwhile, in the Shuswap region, B.C. Wildfire had 12 new fires are burning as of 6 p.m., up from 10 in the afternoon. In the morning, the BCWS map had just four fires before being continually updated.
Two of the fires are located near Scotch Creek, on the north side of Shuswap Lake, with one of those two being close to Shuswap Lake Provincial Park.
Another two, Onyx Creek South and Onyx Creek North, are 14 km northeast of the park.
The Shuswap’s most northern fire is located well north of Sicamous, around 44 kilometres, near Seymour Arm of Shuswap Lake. It was also discovered Friday and wasn’t sized yet.
Heading south, a trio of fires are around 7-14 km northeast of Malakwa. All had yet to be sized.
Just southwest of Sicamous, four km away but across Mara Lake, was a new fire.
Another was 15 km to the southeast of Sicamous.
West of Kamloops, around 30 kilometres and near Savona, are two new fires. Like their Okanagan counterparts, both were discovered Friday, with one being estimated at 0.2 hectares. The two are also on opposite sides of Kamloops Lake.
There’s also a fire near Sun Peaks, one west of Barriere and one beside Momich Lakes Provincial Park, beside the northeastern shores of Adams Lake.
Heading southwest, and around 11 kilometres south of Ashcroft, are three fires 1.6 kilometres apart. The Cornwall Creek fire is sized at four hectares, up from two ha in the morning. Meanwhile, the Minaberriet Creek fire is 16.7 hectares. The third fire has yet to be sized.
The first two of those three were discovered Thursday, with the third found on Friday.
Meanwhile, the ongoing Nohomin Creek fire, discovered on July 14, was at 2,660 hectares as of Friday morning.
And to compound matters, five new fires are burning just across the border in the Southeast Fire Centre.
The lightning-caused Frisbee Ridge fire is around nine km northwest of Revelstoke, with the Mt. Begbie 1 and Mt. Begbie 2 fires around 10-12 km southwest of Revelstoke.
And west of Shelter Bay, on Upper Arrow Lake, are two fires. One is six km to the west, with the second being around 11 km to the northwest.
The B.C. Wildfire Service has an interactive map that is constantly being updated.