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The mayor of Summerland says that damage assessments have been completed as more of his community’s residents return after being forced to flee due to the out-of-control Bald Range wildfire that was sparked on Aug. 7.
Around 22 per cent of the 5,500 properties that were on evacuation order due to the wildfire in the south Okanagan are now on evacuation alert instead, Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes said on Sunday.
He said that he hopes more evacuees return in the coming days — but said fire conditions could change at any time.
“The reason we’re able to bring people back to Summerland is it’s growing away from Summerland,” he said of the fire. “But you know, the winds could change and … you never know, the fire could turn on itself.
“So we just need to be vigilant and not get ahead of ourselves.”
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Holmes acknowledged frustration from residents who don’t yet know if their properties survived the fire, but said they will start getting notified and being provided support now that damage assessments are complete.
“There’s still work to be done to get everybody back, but we should get most people back, you know, fairly soon,” he said.
The BCWS said in a situation report on Sunday that smoke will continue to linger in central and southern B.C., and winds will continue to remain light to start the week.
“The coming week the province will continue to see hotter temperatures and drier conditions with the exception of the far northwest part of the province,” the report reads.
After the explosive growth of wildfires throughout B.C. last week, firefighting help arrived from other Canadian provinces and even from places like Mexico and Australia.
Blake Ross, the agency representative for the Australia-New Zealand contingent of firefighters, said there were 40 firefighters from his region that are tasked with tackling fires.
Ross said that conditions remain dynamic around B.C.’s most concerning fires, and that the weather shifts by the hour.
“It comes into a patch of dry fuel, and then you see these fires take off and building size quite quickly,” he said of the fire behaviour. “That sort of sort of stuff doesn’t really happen as much in Australia. You know, it’s more consistent.
“This seems to be a little bit more erratic than what we’re used to.”
He spoke to CBC News on Sunday near the Bald Range wildfire, which continues to burn out of control and was mapped at over 210 square kilometres as of Sunday afternoon.
The Pear Lake wildfire near Clinton is the province’s biggest active wildfire, at more than 1,590 square kilometres as of Sunday.
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Meanwhile, the Brunswick Creek fire complex near Boston Bar, which is made up of the Brunswick Creek fire and the larger adjacent Ainslie Creek fire, covers more than 740 square kilometres.
Those fires continue to burn out of control, and Highway 1 in the Fraser Canyon continues to be closed as a result.
