Although the Snowy Mountain fire burning across the iconic K-Mountain looked terrifying for residents, Steve Kada, fire information officer for BC Wildfire, said, “it definitely looked worse than it was.”
Kada told the Keremeos Review Tuesday morning crews worked throughout the night to ensure the fire creeping down the slope towards the valley floor would not reach homes or put anyone in danger.
He said he understood seeing flames streaking across the mountain would be jarring for residents.
Related: BC Wildfire has close eyes on Snowy Mountain wildfire
The night sky definitely exacerbates things, bounces of ridges and gullies, and people look at it and think ‘wow, that is gigantic,’ and yes is it sort of but rest assured we have personnel out there.”
During the day and over night crews lit back burns from the valley floor up to the fire line. Kada explained the fire moves slower when coming down slope than going up, so crews were able to set the burns and have it quickly meet the fire line, getting rid of fuel so it would not continue to grow at the valley floor.
In some spots back burns were not necessary and crews were able to manually extinguish the fire coming down the slope.
“It’s (the fire) behaving as we expected,” he said, noting residents will be in for a few more days and nights of a fire show at night.
Kada emphasized no structures are currently at risk and there are natural breaks between the fire and the village including irrigated hay fields, roadways and the river.
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