A fire sparked shortly Wednesday night came dangerously close to a Kelowna neighbourhood, according to officials.
The fire was sparked just before 7 p.m. and when crews first arrived it was measured at about 15-feet by 20-feet in size, and located halfway between the rail trail and the Monashee neighbourhood on Dilworth Mountain.
The small fire quickly ran up the steep grade toward homes on the edge of the neighbourhood, Kelowna Fire Department (KFD) officials said.
“It just took off and it was slightly windy and so everyone was out here, fingers crossed,” said Sheila Ackerman, a Monashee Place resident and strata council president.
Firefighters had to shuttle water into the area and some hiked in to create a fire break to protect the homes above it.
“We were lucky on this one,” said Paul Johnson, fire prevention officer with the KFD. “Unfortunately it was an uphill fire. We have homes at the top of that fire and we’ve got grasses and such at the top. It was somewhat of a close call.”
The intensity of the fire started to build and it was spreading fast. Firefighters eventually stopped the blaze when it was a mere 50 to 75 feet from several homes but not before the fire had grown to 250 feet by 75 feet in size.
Fire investigators were back on scene Thursday morning looking at the scorched grassland and trying to determine the point of origin of a fire that appears to be human caused.
“We have found smoking materials. We’ve found some drug paraphernalia in the area, not actually in this area but we’re not done yet,” Johnson told Global News Thursday morning.
The discovery of any those kinds of potential ignition sources did not come as a surprise to area residents.
“We kind of knew that one of these days something is going to happen down here,” said Ackerman. “It is so dry and homeless camps are down there, things we are concerned about and yeah it happened and it was frightening.”
The dry conditions are so severe, the fire department is again urging home owners to FireSmart their properties to reduce the fire risks.
“Reduce the amount of vegetation up against your house, a 1.5 metre barrier of no vegetation,” Johnson said. “Ensure that underneath your deck it is clear, no pine needles. Ensure your gutters are cleaned out, no pine needles as well and water your grass as much as you can in drought conditions and just limit the combustibles around the building.”
Many of the residents living above Wednesday’s fire said they plan to take even more fire mitigating steps in the wake of the blaze.
They praised the fire department for their quick action in knocking down the flames.
“Wow,” Ackerman said. ‘They take care of business, I’ll tell you that. They saved our homes because I think it could have been so very much worse.”