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Overworked and overburdened all year long, firefighters across the province were finally getting the upper hand on a particularly brutal wildfire season. Closer to home, the Skaha Creek blaze in the mountains just west of the city looked to be on the wane. It was a good news Friday morning, as folks readied for the last long weekend of summer.
And then came word that a new fire had just ignited, this time halfway between Penticton and the Apex Mountain ski resort. And by early afternoon, the smoke from that fire had already covered much of the local sky.
Pretty tough to escape fire season when it just won't let us go.
By this morning, the Hedges Butte fire, as it was now named, had grown to 230 hectares, was deemed "out of control" and a "wildfire of note," and had spurred numerous evacuations in the sparsely populated countryside that surrounds it.
But when PentictonNow visited the zone at noon today, we found a site that seemed a bit less ominous that we'd envisioned.
Granted, our viewpoint was from Green Mountain Road, just west of its intersection with Marron Valley Road, where the fire is believed to have begun. And from that spot, it was difficult to get a good feel for all that was going in the mountains above.
But roadside, things looked pretty good. Both east and west lanes were fully open, and there was no traffic control other than "Emergency Incident" signs at either end of the fire zone. The land nearest the road was charred, but there were no flames and only the odd puff of smoke.
An "origin and cause specialist" checked the ground for a probable cause and starting point, placing little colored flags into the dirt as he theorized and came to conclusions. Beyond that, various pieces of heavy machinery sat in a clearing just off the road.
In the mountains above, numerous helicopters worked non-stop on hot spots, refilling in nearby Farleigh Lake, a small, scenic body of water just a few kilometers from the fire. The round trip from fire to lake and back again took less than ten minutes -- a very fast trip indeed.
Yesterday, skimmers flew from Okanagan Lake to the fire zone all afternoon long, but PentictonNow saw no skimmers in our time at the fire today.
The 2:35 pm BC Wildfire update indicated that the fire now covers 236 hectares, and currently involves 73 personnel, 11 pieces of heavy equipment, and nine helicopters. Tankers and skimmers will continue to support the incident, if necessary.
Please note that PentictonNow opted not to journey to the fire zone Friday for photos. There's one main artery in and out of the area, and we didn’t want to chance compromising firefighter efforts.
For more info on the Hedges Butte wildfire, check our continually updated story here.
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