Okanagan Falls volunteer fire department chief said they are still investigating how a backhoe that was sitting in a field was “burned to a crisp.”

“It is undetermined right now how it got started because it was just sitting in a field and not being used at the time. We haven’t been able to figure out why it started, or maybe if it was due to the heat,” said fire chief Rob Oliver.

The call came in around 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, sending the firefighters to a field located at Allendale Lake Road and Chapman Road.

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“It first came in as a propane tank on fire but we could see the black smoke and knew it wasn’t just that. By the time we got there the backhoe was totally engulfed. The tires were gone and it was burned right to ground. It burned right to a crisp,” said Oliver. “This could have been a lot worse because it could have caught the field on fire.”

Firefighters had two lines going to knock the flames down within 15 minutes.

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