The Keremeos Creek wildfire near Penticton is currently 5903 hectares in size.
No structures were damaged overnight.
The forecast for Aug. 8 is sunny, hot, dry and breezy at 29 C, a minimum relative humidity of 15 percent and wind gusting to 10km/h.
The fire-favouring weather conditions mean that fire activity may increase, potentially bringing the fire closer to Apex Mountain Resort and into the Olalla Creek drainage.
Crew operations are one of the largest parts of the firefighting effort. In this video, a #BCWildfire Service squad boss explains a day in the life of a unit crew on the Keremeos Creek wildfire (K50863). pic.twitter.com/KQzXedNw9i
— BC Wildfire Service (@BCGovFireInfo) August 8, 2022
On Sunday Aug. 7, crews completed planned ignitions in multiple locations and successfully brought the fire’s edge down from difficult to access terrain to workable control lines.
Crews will be conducting additional planned ignitions to fortify hand guard constructed over the weekend.
Hand ignitions will also be used on the northeastern corner of the fire from the end of Sheep Creek Road travelling north.
Helicopters will be standing by in both areas to support operations.
Crews are assigned to hold the fire to the north of the Highway 3A corridor, mopping up along this corridor.
These hand ignitions bring the fire down to safe, workable ground for crews and are crucial for creating reliable containment. During operations, increased fire activity and smoke may be visible from Olalla and Keremeos.
On the western flank, crews will be using direct attack methods from Green Mountain Road to Keremeos Creek Forest Service Road. Heavy equipment continues to be used to establish contingency lines from Apex Mountain over Dividend Mountain to south Keremeos Creek.
On the eastern flank, containment lines continue to be established in the northeast quadrant. Crews continue to construct line around Hedges Butte towards McKay Creek as well as building fuel free and hand guard from McKay Creek towards Green Mountain Road.
BCWS Structure Protection Branch continues to assign crews to put in sprinkler systems to protect properties in the northeast quadrant along Green Mountain Road.
Evacuation Orders and Alerts are in place for the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, Village of Keremeos and Penticton Indian Band.
EOC Update: Additional Evacuation ORDER issued for Electoral Areas G due to Keremeos Creek wildfire August 4, 2022, 6:30 pm https://t.co/WjQqth32nz pic.twitter.com/CiU53BEkV6
— RDOS EOC (@EmergMgtRDOS) August 5, 2022
245 wildland firefighters and an additional 160 structural protection personnel from fire departments across B.C . are managing the blaze for a total crew complement of 405 firefighters.
Report wildfires to *5555 on a cell or 1 800 663-5555 toll-free.
@Rangers_mom
Jacqueline.Gelineau@kelownacapnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our daily and subscribe to our daily newsletter.
