UPDATE: Lake Country fire chief asks people on evac alert to turn off sprinklers

(UPDATE: Aug. 20 @ 1:20 pm) – In a somber and emotional update, Lake Country fire chief Darren Lee provided an update on the situation around the Clarke Creek wildfire.

Lee started off his update by apologizing for not being present in previous updates with the regional district, noting just how busy he and his crews have been protecting properties and homes in the south end of Lake Country and north end of Kelowna.

With tears in his eyes, Lee thanked and congratulated firefighters working throughout the District.

“For thousands of years, regular people step up as warriors to protect their villages, protect their neighbours,” Lee said, with immense pride and gratitude in his voice.

“There’s people out there working 36-48 hour shifts and they take an absolute beating. They know their family’s being evacuated while they’re trying to defend their neighbours home and they just keep going.”

He also thanked the regional partners who have stepped in and joined the fight, including firefighters from Osyoos who stepped up to return the help they received a few weeks ago during the Eagle Bluff wildfire.

Although the situation was a bit more stable across the district, Lee said they were not out of the woods either and would be maintaining evacuation orders and alerts.

“We’ve had a lot of real success and I’m really grateful for all that effort,” Lee said, pointing to the change in weather.

“We’re making the best of this opportunity by throwing a ton of resources at this fire today.”

Lee said he and his team were looking forward to the conditions on Sunday and expected it to be a day to make “really good progress” and move away from the initial attack stage to more sustained action.

Residents throughout Lake Country who are on evacuation alert or are near alert areas are being asked to help firefighters by turning off their sprinklers.

“If you do happen to go on order, we will use your sprinklers, we’ll turn them on, we’ll do our best to do that,” Lee said.

“But all that extra irrigation right now is stressing our water system.”

(Original story: Aug. 20 @ 8:23 am) – The wildfire burning in Lake Country continues to be estimated at 174 hectares, which is the same size estimated provided by the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) on Saturday.

The BCWS is also referring to the fire as the Clarke Creek wildfire moving forward.

However, visibility is limited due to the heavy smoke that has settled across the Central Okanagan and the fire could be a different size.

Crews battled the fire throughout the day on Saturday with dozens of structure protection firefighters working throughout the day alongside helicopters.

Operations on Sunday will be similar to the other two wildfires burning in the region with structure protection firefighters working alongside BCWS personnel.

Several hundred Lake Country properties remain on evacuation order or an alert Sunday morning.

On Saturday, the District of Lake Country declared a local state of emergency due to the rapid spread of the fire.

All existing evacuation orders and alerts in Lake Country can be found at the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations website.

The Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre has been activated to support BC Wildfire Service crews fighting a fire in the District of Lake Country. A local state of emergency has been declared. https://t.co/QGqWvUBIpL pic.twitter.com/lLJzuFd3j3

— Central Ok Emergency (@CO_Emerg) August 19, 2023

Representatives from local fire services and BC Wildfire Service will be providing information on the fire station in a news conference scheduled for 10 am.

A livestream of the update will be available on the regional district’s YouTube channel.

KelownaNow will use this story to update information on the Lake Country wildfire throughout the day. To see our full coverage from Saturday, click this link.