West Kelowna fire department returns to 'normal' operations: wildfire service
CTV
The BC Wildfire Service says the West Kelowna, B.C., fire department is returning to “normal day-to-day operations,” 10 days after a fast-moving wildfire forced thousands to flee and went on to destroy more than 170 homes in the area.
The BC Wildfire Service says the West Kelowna, B.C., fire department is returning to “normal day-to-day operations,” 10 days after a fast-moving wildfire forced thousands to flee and went on to destroy more than 170 homes in the area.
It says an additional 1,800 people have been allowed to return home this weekend as evacuation orders in communities on both sides of Okanagan Lake are lifted.
Interior Health says residents of two more long-term care homes are among those returning home “gradually and carefully” after being evacuated on Aug. 18.
The health authority says 116 residents are set to return to Glenmore Lodge in Kelowna, B.C., and 48 are returning to a care home in the District of Lake Country.
The Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre says 1,588 properties remain on evacuation order in fire-ravaged West Kelowna and 1,114 remain on order in rural areas of the regional district as well as on Westbank First Nation lands.
The McDougall Creek wildfire, responsible for much of the destruction in the West Kelowna area, continues to burn out of control over 123 square kilometres.
In the Shuswap region to the north, an update from the BC Wildfire Service says a warming and drying trend will fuel increased fire behaviour at the 430-square-kilometre Bush Creek East blaze before temperatures are expected to cool Tuesday.
