The Mount Law wildfire continues to burn out of control at 930 hectares near West Kelowna and the Okanagan Connector.
BC Wildfire Service crews are continuing to deal with flare-ups caused by Wednesday night winds, spending Thursday battling a spot fire south of the highway. Another spot fire was identified near Drought Creek, which crews are still working on today, Aug. 27.
“While the threat has eased through much of the fire with mild weather conditions, it is still uncontained in areas and crews are working for containment during this period of mild weather,” said Okanagan complex fire information officer Roslyn Johnson. Johnson is taking over as the lead of the BC Wildfire Service’s incident management team as the Australian incident management team heads home.
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Eighty personnel will be actioning the fire today, including five helicopters and 11 pieces of heavy equipment.
Travel advisories remain in effect due to the Mount Law blaze for two kilometres between West Kelowna and Peachland, Highway 97 junction to MacKinnon Road. One westbound lane on Highway 97C remains closed to traffic near the fire.
The wildfire service is asking drivers not to stop or slow down on the highway to take photos.
An evacuation order remains in place for two properties, 4713 MacKinnon Road and 3250 Highway 97. A map of the affected evacuation alert area is available at cordemergency.ca.
The fire is suspected to be human-caused and will be investigated.
@michaelrdrguezmichael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com
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