Update: Fire 90% Contained

Evacuation orders will remain in place overnight for 58 properties on Nighthawk Road, Long Road and Tyndall Road in Lake Country.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan says fire crews have continued to work tirelessly on the fire as they extinguish remaining spot fires, mop up hot spots in a steep gulley and fall hazard trees.

The fire has gone from 80 per cent contained Tuesday morning to its current status of 90 per cent containment.

The size of the fire-affected area held at 50.3 hectares.

An update on the status of the Evacuation Order for the Okanagan Centre Fire is expected around 8 a.m. Wednesday, July 19.

RCMP are maintaining road blocks in the evacuated area and are conducting ongoing roaming patrols. Members of the public are asked to stay away from evacuated areas to aid in the emergency response and avoid hazards created by the fire. RCMP have indicated zero tolerance for people accessing closed areas.

Firefighters in Okanagan Centre are making headway against hot spots in the fire that began Saturday night.

District and Wildfire Service crews have it 80 per cent contained and Lake Country Fire Chief Steve Windsor is hoping for 100 per cent containment by the end of the day.

“We’re going to do a reassessment at 4 o’clock this afternoon, whether we’re able to open up some of those areas to the residents. My gut feeling is either tonight or tomorrow morning we should be able to.”

For now, an Evacuation Order remains in place for 58 properties on Nighthawk Road, Long Road and Tyndall Road

Chief Windsor (pictured) says arrangements also have to made made with Fortis Gas to get all the gas turned back on.

A further assessment of damaged homes will also be done.

“Even though they’re still standing there was some that did have considerable damage, like the siding had melted totally off one side of the house. There will be heavy smoke damage in a lot of them.”

Chief Windsor says there was a small grass fire in one unburnt area last night but it was easily dealt with.

He says roots continue to burn underground and that may continue for a couple of weeks.

“We want to get to a point where if a hot spot does occur and it’s in the middle of the black, it’s not in the unburnt fuel areas.”

They’re using thermal imaging to look for fires beneath the ground surface, especially in gullies.

Windsor says property owners will see firefighters around for awhile.

“I suspect that we’ll have crews in there probably for the next couple of weeks. A lot of it will be people will phone in and say hey there’s something smoking in the middle of this property. So, we’ll be running around doing those.”

A town hall meeting is being planned to advise property owners how to safely remove red fire retardant from their homes and vehicles.