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Residents of the West Bench neighbourhood just northwest of Penticton are breathing a little easier this hour -- both literally and figuratively -- as a wildfire that ignited this morning on Penticton Indian Band land less than a half kilometer from the nearest home now appears to be well in hand.
Not long after 8 am this morning, BC Wildfire received an alert to the fire, located in an unpopulated area between the Penticton Golf and Country Club and the KRV Trail.
To its east, the Okanagan River Channel, to its wast a steep slope covered in dry, highly flammable vegetation and what would seem to be an easy path to the West Bench, not far away.
Almost immediately a helicopter could be seen hovering over the incident, which was already sending a thick plume of smoke skyward. One didn't need binoculars to spot the flames behind the smoke.
Helicopters with orange buckets were on the scene shortly thereafter. Three in all would ultimately show up, impressing onlookers -- many of whom had walked along the trail from West Bench to gauge a clearly concerning situation -- with their target accuracy.
The fire, labeled simply "West of Okanagan River", is still officially classified as out of control by BC Wildfire, though the burn zone itself -- manifested by a heavily charred area about the size of a couple of football fields -- now seems in the mopping-up stage.
Joining BC Wildfire to battle "West of Okanagan River" was the Penticton Indian Band. But the heavy lifting this day definitely came from those helicopters and their astonishing pilots.
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