Forest Fire burning houses in West Kelowna

[Art Vandelay]

http://www.castanet.net/

Currently the fire is over 15 hectares in size in the Glenrosa area. It is believed three houses have been affected by the fire and a further 12 may be threatened.

The entire West Kelowna Fire Department is attacking the blaze. BC Forestry has engaged six helicopters, 25 ground personnel, two water trucks and four water bomber aircraft . Mutual aid has been requested from Peachland and Kelowna Fire Departments.

Lived in this part of West Kelowna (Glenrosa) in 2001-2002. Lived through the 2003 fire too. Seems like this is inevitable when you build houses amongst forest, especially the dry forest of the Okanagan.

[FanIn80]

Yikes!

[Hemi-Cuda]

i lived in the Okanagan for 18 years. this is just another standard summer occurance sadly, the price you pay for great summer weather with very little rain

[Saint Troy]

I'm here on holidays and have been watching the smoke from upper mission. Looks like it's getting worse with the wind getting stronger.

[Sylvanfan]

Yeah, just got off the golf course in Oliver and the wind is really whipping down the valley tonight. It's also dry and hot here today to boot. No doubt it's going to be a real battle to fight this fire. Hopefully anyone who's house has been affected had insurance and that the weather lets up a bit for them. To think I was considering moving there since I'm getting the boot from my place.

[MelBridgeman]

[LChoy]

I have 2 friends that are stuck in Kelowna right now when they closed the roads. All the hotels and motels are filled up with people so they have to sleep in the car tonight. Getting texts from them regarding how smokey it is and how they are seeing the helicopters and waterbombers coming back and forth

[mikey_the_redneck]

OMG!!! Does Iginla live out there???!!!

[phaneuf_train]

I grew up in Glenrosa until I moved here in 2004. A forest fire there was going to happen sooner than later. I used to bmx all the time in the forests up in the Glenrosa hills

[kootenayguy9]

I am in West Kelowna right now and it is a very eerie sight. I just saw a house go up in Flames from my parents deck. Iginla and Heatley's places are so far away from the fire at the moment.

[Saint Troy]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

I must have passed you on the way to the wok inn, great pics, the wind is still not letting up.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Saint Troy

I must have passed you on the way to the wok inn, great pics, the wind is still not letting up.

These were taken from a friends facebook, they are great pics though

[LockedOut]

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

[Ducay]

I always thought Glenrosa was just a part of Westbank.

I have a cabin on Boucherie Rd, never thought thered be a similar fire on this side of the lake.

[Jimmy Stang]

Coincidentally I drove right past there this afternoon on my way from Calgary to the coast. I could see the smoke as we crossed over the bridge over the lake. As we got a little closer, the police were blocking access to the area and flames could been seen clearly from the highway.

This was probably between 3:30 and 4 local time, so it was probably a good thing that we made it through before the highways were closed.

I can only imagine what some of the residents must be going through. We saw some of them trying to get the police to let them through the barricades so they could check on their homes. Hopefully they get this extinguished soon and keep the loss of property to a minimum.

[schteve_d]

My parents live quite close to there and have sent a few pictures...crazy. I am hoping to be heading there next week for my holidays so we'll see what happens.

[Winsor_Pilates]

I'm living in Kelowna for the summer and working in Penticton. I commute down the highway everyday and today got stuck in the road closure. I've backtracked to Penticton and managed to get the last room at the Best Western.
I'll consider myself lucky as many people are finding all of the hotels full and sleeping in their cars.
Hopefully I can get back to my place tomorrow to atleast get a change of clothes.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

We were at cedar creek park right across the lake from the fire when it started

Here is the fire ~45 min after it started


and about 30 min later

[Winsor_Pilates]

Picture I took around 6 PM from Peachland

[flylock shox]

This thing is really moving. The first report I saw of it at around 9PM had it at 50 hectares. Less than 4 hours later and its up over 300. And it seems it's only been burning for about 12 hours total.

Given the weather forecast for the next month, it's going to take a prolonged easterly wind to blow this into the lake in order for this thing not to get massive. Unfortunately it looks like the waterbombers don't fly at night. I wonder how big this'll be by the time they take off again at 5 am.