Wildfire east of Kelowna; hundreds of homes evacuated

By DENISE WONG

Hundreds of homes are being evacuated east of Kelowna in the Joe Rich area, due to a wildfire in the area that broke out this afternoon.

The fire is 380 hectares in size and the BC Wildfire Service has classified it as “out of control.”

The evacuation order affects 474 homes and an estimated 1,100 people.

Video on social media shows smoke from the Philpott Road fire rising off Highway 33, which is the road heading to Big White Resort. Traffic into the area is blocked off.

Bruce Smith with the Central Okanagan Regional District’s Emergency Operations says the area is very rural.

“The properties tend to be larger in size, acreages, that type of thing. There’s other people with horses and cattle and animals on those properties because they are acreages.”

“RCMP are going door to door with what they call a tactical evacuation of residents in that area, trying to get them out. Those specifically in the Philpott Road area have only one way in and one way out,” says reporter Wayne Moore with Castanet.

“For anybody who’s come up to this area to perhaps ski at Big White, they’ve taken that road — Highway 33 — from Kelowna up to Big White, or perhaps down into the Kootenay area, as well.”

Many other homes have been placed on evacuation alert.

An emergency operations centre is being set up at Willow Park Church on Highway 33 in Kelowna.

The fire was reported at about 1:30 p.m. Crews are fighting the blaze from the ground and air. There’s no word yet on how the fire started.

People living in the Kelowna area are no stranger to wildfires.

“People are always on pins and needles around here, especially after 2003, the night that 220-some-odd homes burned down. It was 14 years ago — we just passed that anniversary,” says Moore.

“People are very vigilant here. Very cautious and very nervous when they see plumes of smoke, especially that large, in the area. There are some nervous people out there.”

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