Southern British Columbia Wildfire Leads to Evacuation Notices

The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) is reporting that hundreds of residents in British Columbia’s southern Okanagan region have forced to evacuate their home on short notices following a wildfire outbreak on Tuesday (8/18) afternoon southeast of Penticton B.C. The wildfire which quickly grew from 250 hectares to nearly 10 square kilometers within hours forcing the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen to order 319 properties to evacuate immediately. Shortly after, the city of Penticton issued an evacuation alert for almost 3,700 properties close to Skaha Lake. In describing the situation, Information Officer Niccole Bonnett said, “The terrain is definitely not all that favorable. It’s quite rocky up there. And yesterday that meant that finding safe access points to get the crews in on the ground was proving to be a little bit of a challenge.”