Kelowna Forest Fire

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by deepblueaquatics

over 15 houses are gone .

as of last night (11 hours after your post) the confirmed 30000 people were evacuated with another 10000 on 1 hours notice. also the amount of homes lost is in the hundreds.

We got word yesterday at work that we have been put on "Standby" to go help out (they are trying to figure out how many and who they can spare
)

Steve

There were a bit over 200 homes lost last night and tonight is not supposed to be very good. there are 17,000 more people that are on evacuation alert

[Troy F]

Thanks for the updates. I finally got a hold of one friend and he's not in any danger of losing a home but it's still good to hear from him.

Did the fire come down into the Lakeshore Drive area? That's where my other buddy lives and I haven't been able to get in touch with him (obviously).

[AJ_77]

Check out the first website mentioned:

Highlights from 11:00 am News Conference 11:44 am
Last night was probably the roughest night in Kelowna firefighting history according to fire Chief Jerry Zimmerman. The Okanagan Mountain Park Forest fire hit Kelowna city limits Friday and destroyed 203 houses. 68 homes were lost in the Crawford Estates area, four houses lost in Kettle Valley, about 100 homes gone in the Viewcrest, Okaview and Chute Lake area and 16 in the Barnaby and Lakeshore road area. Added to 15 homes that were destroyed earlier that brings the total to 203. The fire department is taking aerial photographs of the burnt out homes and will be offering them to local media so the public can see if their house was affected. Three Kelowna firefighters homes were lost in the fires Friday night as they tried to fight the blaze. The fire is now estimated at 19,000 hectares. There are 250 people are on the firelines along with military personnel. 13 helicopters and 109 pieces of heavy equipment are being used to fight the fire. Safety is the number one priority and some crews had to be taken out of the area last night for their own safety. There's little chance of rain in the forecast and officials are fighting eight major interface fires in the Kamloops fire centre area. That includes the Vaseaux Lake fire that started Friday afternoon and has scorched 1,000 hectares. Crews are making progress on that fire but it is far from contained.

We have a handful of friends and relatives in Kelowna, some of which are evacuated now (Mission). Not sure how they're doing.

The Evacuation Map is pretty alarming.

I believe any homes in the mission from KLO road and down further are evacuated. and most of black mountain in rutland is evacuated too. from downtown kelowna you can see flames hundreds of feet high from the evening on. if you go to the site I posted at the top of this post you can get numbers for evacuee registration to see if your friends are evacuated.
to add to the news release, there will be over 1000 military personal here this weekend sometime. I wonder what tonight will bring with more winds comming.... it looks pretty to watch but the destruction is horrible!!!

[DJ88]

wow.

my mother lost power yeserday due to a new fire south of Penticton(Vasseux lake).

It's already 1,000 hectares like it was stated in that press release.

scary

[StirCrazy]

here is a good website focusing on the Kelowna fire.

http://castanet.firewatch.net/

Steve

that link that you posted Steve is the same link that I posted at the top of this thread. Well it takes you to the same joint website anyways... Another fire started at a riverside forestry yard and is being put out with dynamight right now. Winds are picking up and this will probably be another bad night for the fire. As soon as it gets dark the whole sky around Kelowna is lit up. If you go to the link I posted or the link Steve posted you can see some pretty amazing pictures, also try this link: http://welcometokelowna.com/Okanagan...ark_fire.shtml

There is also very good radio coverage at this link: http://www.thesun.net/kelowna/

[Troy F]

How bad is the fire at Riverside? Has there been any damage to the mill itself?