There was no major growth overnight on the White Rock Lake Wildfire.
The B.C. Wildfire Service said at 8:10 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, that the fire has not crossed any control lines north of Highway 97 in the Monte Lake/Paxton Valley area or along the northeast flank all the way south past the major powerline corridor near Ingram.
The fire, estimated at more than 62,000 hectares in size, will most likely be very active north of Naswhito Creek, today. There was an increase in size along the south flank, north of the Fintry Protected Area. The fire is about 1.5 kilometres north of the Fintry Protected Area at its closest point and 3.5 km northwest of Fintry Park at its closest point.
The ridge is expected to break down Sunday with strong gusting winds, up to 60km/h, from the south to southwest expected. There will most likely be a significant increase in fire activity today starting in the afternoon. Heavy equipment, ground crews, and helicopters are strategically positioned to priority areas on the fire that are expected to be the most challenging along the north, northeast, and east flanks.
The structure protection branch consists of 143 structure protection personnel from various fire departments. Twenty personnel are remaining on-site overnight tonight to ensure 24-hour coverage for structure protection. Seven pieces of heavy equipment, two Type 1 Structure Protection Unit (SPU) trailers, seven Type 2 SPU trailer, 20 engines, five mass-water delivery systems, and 16 water tenders are also assigned to the structure protection branch.
Structure protection personnel are prepared to defend interface wildland-urban-interface (WUI) areas such as Westwold, Falkland, Cedar Hills, Pinaus Lake, Paxton Valley, and communities along Westside Road (Westshore Estates, Killiney Beach, Valley of the Sun), including Okanagan Indian Band IR#1.
Structure protection is also working in the intermix WUI areas, including rural properties throughout the fire perimeter, where possible to conduct structure protection. Every property that is, or has been, at risk from the wildfire has been assessed and triaged.
Intermix WUI refers to areas where housing and wildland vegetation intermingle, while interface WUI refers to areas where housing is in the vicinity of a large area of dense wildland vegetation.
WEATHER UPDATE
SUNDAY: Increasing cloud by noon. MAX TEMP: 29 C MIN RH: 20% WINDS: SW 10 to 15 km/h in the morning becoming SW-W 30 with gusts to 50 km/h in the afternoon.
OUTLOOK: MONDAY AND TUESDAY
A West Southwest flow aloft will give a mix of sun and cloud and a slight chance of showers on Monday. Cooler temperatures with a high of 22 C. Light at times gusty NW winds. An upper low tracking across northern Washington State will give mainly cloudy skies and scattered showers on Tuesday. Cool with a high near 18 C Light N to NW winds.
EVACUATION ALERTS AND ORDERS
Okanagan Indian Band (last updated Aug. 14): The latest updates indicate that all orders and alerts will remain unchanged for the remainder of the day;
City of Vernon (as of Aug. 8): An Evacuation ALERT remains in place for Canadian Lakeview Estates, Adventure Bay, Tronson Road between 8125 to 9280;
District of Coldstream (as of Aug. 7): No alerts or orders in place for White Rock Lake fire;
City of Armstrong (as of Aug. 14): No alerts or orders in place;
Township of Spallumcheen (as of Aug. 14): Evacuation alert issued Aug. 12 remains in place for the areas listed here;
City of Enderby (as of Aug. 15): No alerts or orders in place;
Regional District of North Okanagan (as of Aug. 13): Evacuation alerts and orders are in place and can be found here;
Columbia Shuswap Regional District (as of Aug. 14): Currently there are no changes to Evacuation Orders or Alerts in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District;
Regional District of Central Okanagan (as of Aug. 15): Evacuation Order remains in place and can be found here; likewise for Evacuation Alert issued Aug. 12, which can be found here.
READ MORE: Update: White Rock Lake Wildfire burning aggressively with west winds
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