The weather continues to improve for firefighters working on a trio of wildfires in West Kelowna, Kelowna and Lake Country.
In a morning press conference, Brad Litke with the BC Wildfire Service says the wildfire burning in the Clifton and north Glenmore areas of north Kelowna is mapped at 777 hectares.
There are three operational crews working on what has been dubbed the Walroy Lake wildfire alongside 62 firefighters working and a total of 69 structure protection firefighters, which includes the Kelowna Fire Department and other resources.
Across the Grouse Complex, which includes all three wildfires, there are 15 helicopters helping firefighters on the ground.
“Fire continues to display lower fire behaviour and there was a lot of really excellent progress made locking down and anchoring some of our flanks and we also saw some reductions in some evacuation orders to the north,” Litke said.
At this time, no evacuation orders or alerts have been rescinded for Kelowna, but a few properties in Lake Country's Okanagan Centre area were taken off evacuation orders.
A full map of evacuation orders and alerts is available at the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations website.
Kelowna fire chief Travis Whiting said Monday night and Tuesday continue to be good nights to fight fires.
“Crews still diligently working and trying to put up a perimeter and a fence around this fire and stop any future growth so we can start to see people get back into their homes,” Whiting said.
Kelowna mayor Tom Dyas and Whiting took a drive around the fire perimeter Tuesday morning and were able to see crews working hard to get guards built around this fire as soon as possible to get evacuation orders rescinded.
Whiting said it was he and his crews top priority to get more people home and back into their own beds as soon as it is safe.
A preliminary field assessment of the Clifton, Wilden and Glenmore areas shows that three houses and two outbuildings across four properties were lost when the fire jumped the lake Thursday night.
Whiting said three of the houses were on Glenmore Road adjacent to the landfill, north of the Shady Lane RV and Trailer park and south of the North Glenmore dog park.
Three of the four property owners have been notified and evacuees are reminded to register with ESS so officials have current contact information for property owners.
“We’d like to extend our heartfelt sympathy to those who have lost their homes. We understand that this is extremely stressful and we will work directly with you to ensure that you have the supports that you need,” Whiting said.
As for the remaining areas, Whiting explained that the current recovery and reentry plans for each jurisdiction will look different but it is being done collaboratively.
For the City of Kelowna, he says that due to where the losses happened and several hazards in other affected areas, the assessments for the remaining evacuation zone is a lot more complex and may take longer.
“Preliminary field assessments at this point indicate minimal damage to infrastructure, crews did a great job dealing critical infrastructure like water supply through the area,” Whiting said.
The heavy smoke is impacting the ability to fly over or get into other areas safely to see if other homes were damaged or lost, however.
Whiting says the smoke is expected to lighten over the next day or two and those assessments are anticipated to be done then.
He asks the community for their patience and expects crews will be able to give more concrete numbers and a status update on potential loss in the next couple of days.
Click here to see our coverage on the Walroy Lake/Clifton wildfire from Monday.
