Officials in British Columbia’s Okanagan region were hopeful that fire crews could aggressively tackle the flames on Saturday, as the weather forecast called for more cloud cover and less wind than in recent days.
Spokeswoman Noelle Kekula with the region’s complex incident team said that while some wildfires in the Okanagan stayed the same size overnight, others grew slightly.
“Over the last day we have seen that the (fires) have stayed within our containment lines,” Kekula said. “So they’re just growing a bit, but staying within our containment lines.”
The number of properties under evacuation order or alert remains at nearly 1,000 as the fires continue to burn in the popular tourist area of the province’s southern Interior.
Kekula said that about 200 firefighters and 18 helicopters were working to increase the containment of the fires and get water on the perimeter.
“In the Okanagan complex, our priorities are life, property and infrastructure, and with any of those three, that’s where we’re focusing our attention on,” she said.
Earlier this week a lightning storm hit the region, which spans from Salmon Arm in the north to Osoyoos in the south.
The emergency operation centre in the southern part of the Okanagan region said an additional 32 properties were placed on evacuation order Saturday.
Cameron Baughen, the centre’s spokesman, said 154 additional properties were put on evacuation alert, meaning residents must leave immediately if told that the fire has gotten worse.
“The main issue is a border fire between our regional district and the central Okanagan regional district,” he said.
In the central part of the region, 766 properties are on alert, but none are on evacuation order.
Okanagan is the province’s main wine-making region and is a popular tourist area for travellers from B.C., Alberta and the U.S.
Kekula said a fire that is taking up significant amount of resources to contain is called the Mount Eneas fire, which spans about 13.7 square kilometres.