Update: Alerts Lifted For Finlay Creek Fire

Update 3 pm:

Some residents impacted by a wildfire near Peachland can breath a little easier.

Officials have lifted the evacuation alerts for 306 properties in the area of the Finlay Creek fire.

There is still 55 homes evacuated and 140 more under an alert.

That fire — which started last Saturday — is over 21-hundred hectares and 15% contained.

11 am:

The Finlay Creek wildfire southwest of Peachland is now estimated at two thousand 139 hectares.

That’s a substantial growth from the 1300 Thursday.

Fire information officer Heather Rice says that’s due to better mapping of the fire along with a control burn yesterday.

“And we decided to do that burn because the fire was active around the south flanks of Mount Acland and was starting to grow in that area.”

She said the burn went well and the fire is still within the fire guards, remaining at 15 per cent contained.

For now, it’s matter how the weather holds.

“Well, It’s mainly the wind, so if we get a little bit of wind that’s great but if we get increased gusty winds , that will again challenge the guards and increase our fire activity.”

Structural protection crews are monitoring the fire’s progress.

“We do have structural protection on areas in the north part pf Fish Lake as well as Garnet Lake because the fire is relatively close to those structures.”

Rice says those structures are a combination of outbuildings and other buildings.

Sixty-one firefighters are working the fire today with heavy equipment