Ben from the Anarchist Mountain Fire Department working through the night putting out hot spots on the mountain. (AMFD Facebook)

Only 2 mm of rain fell on South Okanagan wildfires

Expected winds and hot, dry weather will continue to challenge these fires, said BC Wildfire

  • Aug. 2, 2021 12:00 a.m.

While everyone was happy to see the spattering of rain on Sunday, it wasn’t enough to help either wildfire burning in the South Okanagan.

According to BC Wildfire, the Nk’Mip and Thomas Creek wildfires received 1 to 2 mm of scattered precipitation yesterday. While that has provided a slight reprieve in fire behaviour, conditions are forecast to return to being warm and dry over the next two days, said BC Wildfire in their Monday update on the two fires.

“The fire and surrounding areas remain under thick smoke conditions. Winds today are forecast to be 10-15 km/hr from the west and northwest, with afternoon gusts of 25-35 km/hr in the afternoon which will increase the drying out of forest fuels from yesterday’s precipitation.”

The Nk’Mip fire is over 15,000 hectares in size and the Thomas Creek fire is more than 10,000 ha as of Monday, Aug. 2.

Fire crews continue to work on patrol and mop up around residential areas near McKinney and Nk’Mip roads and the Shrike Hill subdivision, burning off any fuel, reinforcing existing guards and extinguishing hotspots.

A total of 186 firefighters, seven helicopters and 24 pieces of heavy equipment continue to work on the Nk’Mip fire.

Evacuation orders and alerts haven’t changed for this fire over the weekend.

READ MORE: Nk’Mip fire grows to 15K hectares, burned embers falling

READ MORE: It’s raining in South Okanagan

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