More residents evacuated by South Okanagan wildfire

More residents have been ordered to evacuate due to the Keremeos Creek wildfire southwest of Penticton.

An estimated 38 homes in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen were issued evacuation orders today, Aug. 4, bringing the total of impacted properties to 407, with close to 500 homes on alert.

The regional district said two mobile home parks west of Highway 3A are among the latest to be ordered out by the 4,250 hectare fire.

Bryan Zandberg from the BC Wildfire Service said growth on the fire is due to planned ignitions to reduce fire fuels on Wednesday, and an uptick of activity north of Ollala.

“The fire crossed over into Cedar Creek yesterday, and last night it decided to take a big run. It was rank four behaviour and tearing up that mountain. Then we had some winds at about 30 km/h pushing it right back down to some of the residences and ranches in the Ceder Creek area just above Ollala,” Zandberg told a RDOS update on YouTube.