VIDEO: Mayor gets overview of devastation in West Kelowna

After viewing the fire and his own community of West Kelowna both from the air and from the ground, Mayor Gordon Milsom calls it "gut-wrenching".

The first thing that struck Milsom about what he saw was fire itself which continues to burn out of control.

The massive McDougall Creek fire covers a sprawling 12, 318 hectares.

"It was really shocking to see," said Mayor Milsom.

"The burned forest...just an immense area."

With 84 homes lost in his community, the worst was yet to come on his tour.

"Seeing the destruction within certain neighbourhoods...that was really heartbreaking," he said.

"It was really gut-wrenching to see that."

But Milsom also saw situations where homes were saved.

"It could have been much, much worse," said Milsom, who has been the mayor of West Kelowna since 2018.

Knowing about the devastation is one thing.

But seeing it is something else.

"It was a pretty heavy day," he said.

"Seeing the homes that were lost and how it's going to impact families and their lives."

Milsom is offering his sympathies, but promising more than that.

"We'll do as much as we can as a city to help them over the next months or years that it takes to rebuild," he said.

Thousands of West Kelowna residents remain out of their homes on evacuation orders.