Central Okanagan Emergency Operations has also placed 68 properties on evacuation order and another 5,700 properties on alert due to the nearby McDougall Creek wildfire, which grew to three square kilometres in a matter of hours after it started on Wednesday.
Cliff Chapman, director of the BC Wildfire Service, said at a news conference that they were seeing extreme behaviour by the fire that is just a few kilometres away from the community.
Most of the southern half of the province has been baking under a heat wave, and Chapman said the breakdown of a high-pressure ridge will bring gusty winds and dry lightning, making the next few days the most challenging yet in a record-breaking fire season.
“You couple that with the extreme drought conditions that we’ve spoken about on these availabilities over the course of the last number of months, and the conditions out in the forests are very primed to see significant fire growth and to see new fires challenge our suppression efforts,” he said.
Evacuees are being asked to register online or go to the Information Centre at Royal LePage Place.
Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said the wildfire service has deployed “significant resources” to the fire.
“It is our hope that we don’t have to recommend that the communities go to an evacuation order but, of course, we’re also asking everyone to be prepared now,” she said.
“I want to stress now is not the time to not adhere to evacuation orders and alerts. The weather is going to be erratic and significant, at least it is forecast to be,” he said.
“Please listen to your local governments and provincial officials when there is an evacuation order. We urge you to please leave. We will try to get you home as soon as we can (when) this weather system passes.”
