Over the weekend, the Bradley Creek wildfire at the northern end of Okanagan Lake in British Columbia rapidly spiralled out of control, with the burned area increasing from about 10 square kilometres to about 26 square kilometres, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. On Saturday afternoon, the fire triggered multiple mandatory evacuation orders, affecting the Okanagan Indian Reservation, the town of Spallumcheen, and the Splatsin First Nation. Provincial wildfire operations manager Cliff Chapman stated at a press conference on Sunday that over 5,000 people had been evacuated in the past 24 hours.
Chapman stated that the current burning situation is unprecedented, with the speed and intensity of the fire’s spread never seen before in the province. Around midnight Sunday, evacuation alerts were issued for 15 properties in Armstrong; alerts were also issued for approximately 217 properties in the Columbia-Shuswape Region (CSRD), affecting about 500 people. Further south of Lake Okanagan, the Quilpituk Creek wildfire discovered on Saturday also triggered an evacuation order in the Central Okanagan Region (RDCO), covering the area from north of Nahun to south of La Casa. By Sunday afternoon, the order had been extended to all properties south of the Okanagan Indian Reservation 1 to north of Nahun, affecting approximately 81 properties, with residents instructed to evacuate south along the west side road.
The provincial wildfire service reported 31 new wildfires in the past 24 hours, nine of which have been extinguished. Data from the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Response shows that as of 9:00 AM Sunday, 42 evacuation orders covered approximately 4,000 properties, and 40 alerts covered approximately 4,500 properties, a significant increase compared to Saturday’s figures.
A wildfire in Wait Creek in East Kootenay threatens nearly 1,000 homes, prompting evacuations of approximately 972 residences, including several campsites, in the Tata Creek, Vasa Lake, and Lech Lake areas. Emergency teams began tactical evacuations on Saturday, directing residents to a support centre at Parkland High School in Cranbrook. The largest fire in the province is currently the Pear Lake wildfire, part of the Big Bar fire zone, covering an area of approximately 1,039 square kilometres. Within this fire zone, the French Bar Creek wildfire stretches approximately 371 square kilometres, leading to evacuation orders for about 10 properties on the Bonabá Plateau in the Thompson-Nicolas region.
In an update Sunday morning, the provincial wildfire service said that the intensity of the fires would decrease compared to the previous day as temperatures dropped, humidity increased, and winds weakened, but stressed that local vegetation was still severely affected by drought and could be easily ignited and fuelled once the weather cleared.