The Central Okanagan Emergency Operations (CORD) has confirmed that 78 properties were directly impacted by the White Rock Lake wildfire in the communities of Killiney Beach, Estamont Beach, and Beau Park.
Sunday the fire was showing extreme behaviour and into the evening things seemed to calm down.
As crews were getting ready to leave for the night, high winds had the fire coming down the hill at a ranked 5/6 behaviour which began moving into homes. Firefighters were then tasked with having to triage houses in the area.
“It’s devastating for firefighters, because they’re used to putting fires out,” said RDCO Fire Services Manager, Ross Kotscherofski. “In this case you just have too many homes on fire, so you have to go after the ones you can save and that’s what fire crews did that night.”
The areas directly impacted on Westside Road remain under an evacuation order, as well as Westshore Estates, Wainman Cove, Ewings Landing, a portion of Upper Fintry, and Valley of the Sun where there are no reports of major structural damage.
“Westshore estates has currently been unaffected by the fire, there was a lot of prevention efforts in the beginning of this fire and right now due to the fact it's between the Okanagan Indian Band and the active fire in the Killiney Beach/ Estamont Area, it will remain in evacuation. But right now things do look very good in West Shore,” said Kotscherofski.
Media had the opportunity to see the extensive damage that the White Rock Lake wildfire caused in the Estamont and Killiney Beach neighborhoods.
Bus tours were provided to residents yesterday whose properties were directly affected by the fire to give them an idea of the damage.
“Residents were very appreciative of having the chance to temporarily observe their properties; and while it goes without saying that it was an extremely difficult day for them, and all who were there to offer support, homeowners were grateful for the opportunity to begin the process of moving forward. Our hearts go out to them in this difficult time,” said Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre Public Information Officer Jodie Foster.
There is currently no indication as to when community members will be able to return to the area as the wildfire remains active and power lines are still down.
“Right now the smoke is a lot better than what we’ve been seeing, the active fire is not what we’ve seen, it's not as aggressive in nature. Which hopefully gives the wildfire crews the opportunity to guard the fire,” said Kotscherofski.
The White Rock Lake wildfire sits at an estimated 80,951 hectares and has seven different jurisdictions issuing alerts and orders.
Evacuation orders are in place for 1,316 properties and alerts are currently impacting 850 properties in the Regional District of the Central Okanagan.
The Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has an evacuation order in place for Pinaus Lake and an evacuation alert affecting Falkland, Cedar Hill and Yankee Flats.
The Regional District of North Okanagan has an evacuation order in place of 20 properties on the west side of Irish Creek Rd and Beatrice Rd.
Thompson-Nicola Regional District evacuation order has been downgraded to an alert and remains in place for 45 properties in the vicinity of Westwold/Monte Lake.
The Township of Spallumcheen has rescinded their evacuation alert for some areas, but 21 properties still remain under the alert.
The City of Vernon still has an evacuation alert in place for the Canadian Lakeview Estates, Adventure Bay, and Tronson Rd between 8125 and 9280, no orders are currently in place.
The Okanagan Indian Band has partially rescinded evacuation orders north of Louis Estates up to Irish Creek Rd. All of Coyote Crossing, Desert Cove and Lawrence Heights remain under an alert.
