Emergency officials have ordered all residents to evacuate the community of Olalla, BC, about 40 kilometers southwest of Penticton, due to the Keremeos Creek wildfire.
The unincorporated town, with a population of more than 400, was placed under full evacuation orders Thursday afternoon, affecting approximately 200 properties, around 5 p.m. by the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District.
Half an hour later, residents of a portion of the village of Keremeos, BC, representing nearly 220 properties, were put on evacuation alert by municipal and regional authorities.
“This afternoon, the approaching cold front has brought much higher winds than we’ve been seeing for the past few days, which has increased fire behavior,” said Mikhail Elsay, a fire information officer. of the BC wildfire service. “We felt we had to extend the evacuation orders just to protect the communities that are pretty close to the fire.”
The Keremeos Creek wildfire burned out of control near BC Highway 3A on Tuesday. (Tom Popyk/CBC)
The service said on its website that downwind winds of more than 30 km/h overnight pushed the fire down along Highway 3A, south to Olalla, even as crews worked throughout the night to maintain the fire on the west side of the highway.
The regional district, which has had to evacuate residents from a total of 547 properties so far this wildfire season, said drivers should expect Highway 3A to be closed Thursday evening.
The Keremeos Creek wildfire, 43 square kilometers in size, had been stable for the past day.
Firefighters have tried to contain it by lighting a series of planned fires near Highway 3A during the week.
—@EmergMgtRDOS
There were 62 wildfires burning in the province as of Thursday evening, with most of the 156 that started last week extinguished.
Most of them are in the Kamloops Fire Center region, which includes the Okanagan.
It is suspected that just over half of the fires in the province have been caused by lightning.
BC Forest Fire Service crews light controlled fires in an effort to prevent the Keremeos Creek wildfire from growing 21 kilometers southwest of Penticton on Thursday. (BC Wildfire Service)