Interview with Lake Country Fire Chief

On Saturday, July 15th at approximately 4:30 p.m. a wildfire sparked on Nighthawk Road, just north of McKinley Landing.

What started as a two hectare, rank three fire, quickly grew to over 30 hectares and a rank six by the evening.

With a tactical evacuation in order, air tankers and ground crews called to action within the first hour, the Okanagan Centre Fire quickly made its way to disaster.

KelownaNow spoke with Lake Country Fire Chief, Steve Windsor, to learn more about the status of the blaze, the plan of action, and devastation caused by the fire thus far.

*Click below to listen to our podcast*

Click here to see our photo story

Click here to see the original story

According to Windsor, the retardinal lines laid by the BC Wildfire air tankers on Saturday evening held strong throughout the night, and today the crews on site are working within those boundaries to target hot spots, but are largely focusing on the structures within the area.

“[Today] The structural crews have been concentrating on the several homes that are still potentially threatened, due to the unburned fuel below and surrounding them.” Said Windsor

According to Karen Miller, communications officer for the District of Lake Country, around 7 to 10 homes have been lost in the fire so far.

“One of the things we're doing now, is an assessment of all the homes to see how many were destroyed versus just damaged,” said Windsor.

“We will be later today contacting property owners and there will be a tour for them, giving them the opportunity to go into the area by bus and look at the devastation.”

The fire is still active at a rank two and 55 hectares in size according to Windsor, however, it is estimated to be 80 percent contained.

“We're looking to reinforce the guard that was put around the fire and then work throughout the hot spots, we'll be doing another change today late in the day with the crews and likely continue to work through the night,” added Windsor

After the large amount of air support from the 11 fixed winged aircraft, and one helicopter yesterday, most of today’s work will be focused on the ground as opposed to the skies. Windsor has confirmed there are close to 40 crew members on scene today, from different departments throughout the valley.

“We've had a big response from even geographically outside the valley, the fire departments within the valley have worked many years together on these wildland interface fires, but this is the first time to my recollection we've had North Okanagan fire departments coming down.”

What started as a flame along the roadside on Okanagan Centre Road West, grew within minutes to a blaze that threatened homes and infrastructure. With no information on a cause as of yet, Windsor is advising the public to be prepared.

“People need to be aware, they have to be prepared to evacuate. Not even necessarily to do with this fire, and we were lucky we had some very close calls but people evacuated very quickly when they were told to leave, that's very important.”