Jul 26, 2013
Fire is contained but still burning
We awoke to smoke and haze this morning but thankfully all is going to be alright. Colin considered it a drill last night, getting ready to leave just in case. Just in case the winds picked up as they did the year of the big Kelowna fires in 2003. Many evacuated that year as we did. This fire was serious enough that they did shut down the Kelowna International Airport for a few hours.
Since then Holiday Park has put some fire evacuation rules into place and one of them is no vehicles are to be driven out of the park. There are too many vehicles and just the one road out with two exits. Bikes and golf carts are alright. Fortunately we have a golf cart because there is no way I could have walked down the road to the exit.
We are the blue dot above the ‘E’ in Lake at the bottom of the shot and the exits are the 2 top blue dots. The fire area is the part blue dot to the bottom right of the screen.
Colin's shot.
My shot taken over the neighbors roof.
I took this at the beginning of the fire before the red helicopter arrived.
The red helicopter did as much as it could sucking up the lake water and making pass after pass before it had to refuel. Finally a few fire bombers from Kamloops arrived on scene as well as a second helicopter.
Needless to say everyone was outside with eyes skyward. Colin's shot.
The fire was likely human caused but Mother Nature played a huge role in keeping it under control. The winds had been gusting to 32km/h as the fire was spotted but died right down preventing a major event. The fire has been downgraded to a Rank 1 today but it is still burning although contained. Thankfully a crew of fire fighters worked all night. Here is the link to the latest news update along with a few of Colin’s shots.
Fire crews were late getting to the fire because they were dealing yet another incident.
Just a few miles from here a motorhome was pushed off the road by a speeding driver. Fortunately the trees kept it from falling into Wood Lake.
We are really hoping for a calm and quiet day today. However winds are forecast to pick up to 30km/h this afternoon:(
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Glad you’re all ok!
Linda & Russell…..thanks, we are very happy things turned out as they did.
Inger…..we all survived another adventure here at Holiday Park.
George…yes all is clear now.
Ruth…amazing that the wind settled down to nothing. Almost a miracle.
Cheryl…perhaps global warming. Our summers are getting hotter and drier year after year.
thanks to you & Colin for all the good picture’s , very nice
Thats a good thing that the fire is now contained, looks like you are in the clear now.
Wow, that was sure a lot of excitement for a day. So glad that the wind subsided and that you didn’t have to evacuate and that the fire is now under control. Colin took some great photos of the helicopter and the water bomber.
Ruth
Yikes! What a scary situation. I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times, but there seem to be more and more summer fires.
I’m glad the RV-er was OK, some people drive like maniacs!