BC urges travellers to stay away from Interior as wildfires rage
Officials with BC’s provincial government are urging travellers and tourists to stay away from BC’s Interior after a wildfire destroyed homes and trapped residents in West Kelowna Thursday night.
The fast-moving McDougall Creek wildfire torched homes, threatened critical infrastructure, and forced people to flee as the shores of Okanagan Lake lit up a terrifying shade of orange.
Andrew Levangie/Submitted
“I’m asking British Columbians and tourists to avoid travelling to the Central Interior and Southeast portions of the province if possible,” BC’s minister of emergency management and climate readiness, Bowinn Ma, said in a Friday news conference. “We all need to give firefighters the space they need to keep us safe.”
Firefighters say Thursday night was one of the toughest of their careers.
“I’ve been in the BC Wildfire Service my entire career, over 20 years, and there’s only a few dates that will always be engraved in my head. Yesterday is one of those days,” Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations, said.
A cold front brought high winds and dry lightning to the Okanagan, fanning flames and allowing fires to balloon in size.
“We knew the weather was coming. We knew it was going to have a big impact on the fires. And it did. Now we’re seeing the catastrophic impact fires can have as they interface with communities.”
The fire is now estimated to be 68 square kilometres in size. It destroyed homes and threatened critical infrastructure in the community, and Chapman says firefighters don’t yet have official numbers on how many buildings were destroyed.
One home confirmed burned is the luxury abode built by Todd Talbot, host of Vancouver’s Love It or List It.
View this post on Instagram
Chapman also can’t confirm whether the McDougall Creek fire jumped across Okanagan Lake to burn north of Kelowna proper, or whether new fires were started on the east shore. Either way, fires burned on both sides of the lake, threatening both Kelowna and West Kelowna.
The fire is still behaving “aggressively,” he said.
Across BC, about 4,500 people have been ordered to evacuate. Another 23,000 are on alert to leave their homes at a moment’s notice because of wildfire danger. In Kelowna, people have been ordered to leave their homes on both sides of Okanagan Lake.
Areas in orange are under evacuation alert and areas in red are under evacuation order. (BC Wildfire Service)
Ma urged British Columbians to be ready for potential evacuation and cautioned that rental properties may be scarce given that it’s peak tourism season.
The University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus is among the places under evacuation order. The school asked students and staff to leave campus immediately, and advised those without their own method of transportation to proceed to a central parking lot.
UPDATE: UBC Okanagan is under evacuation order. Please leave campus immediately. If you are on campus and do not have access to transportation, please make your way to H Lot.
Everyone else, please leave the area immediately in a calm and orderly manner. pic.twitter.com/Dxx0noahVT
— UBC Okanagan (@ubcokanagan) August 18, 2023
BC’s minister of forests, Bruce Ralston, also cautioned British Columbians not to fly drones or go boating near active wildfires — to keep the path clear for firefighting aircraft to scoop water from lakes.