Wildfire officials in the Okanagan will provide an update Monday, as the province continues to grapple with more than 370 fires.
It will be the last scheduled Emergency Operations Centre press conference, as local governments and the Westbank First Nation move into “different phases of re-entry and recovery and communication needs change,” the Regional District of Central Okanagan said Monday.
The briefing is set to begin at 10 a.m. Global News will livestream it on BC1, its website and Facebook page.
In the Central Okanagan, the McDougall Creek wildfire continues to burn out of control at more than 12,634 hectares. The other fires in the Grouse Complex — Clarke Creek and Walroy Lake — are both classified as “held,” meaning they’re unlikely to overtake BC Wildfire Service boundaries.
In a Monday interview, West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund said “things are slowly starting to return to normal” — marked by the return of simple routines, like raising the flag at the fire station.
“Yesterday, 2,200 people slept in their own bed for the first time in our region,” he said.
“That’s encouraging, but there are still a lot of people out of their homes and there’s still active fire in the hills above the community.”
Brolund said the fight against McDougall Creek is transitioning away from the urgency of protecting structures to containing the blaze on the surrounding landscape. Planned ignitions are likely to continue, which is why not all residents can’t return home, he added.
“Yesterday was a very active day. There was a lot of smoke visible from the community, there was fire visible from the community,” he explained.
“Those are signs that there is still risk here, but that the wildfire service is doing their best to secure that line so we can get the balance of people home.”
Meanwhile, in West Kelowna, BC Hydro crews are still working to replace hundreds of power poles that were burned or knocked down. Other telecommunications companies are also working to return phone and Internet services to neighbourhoods, he added.
“A few days ago, it was a firefighting army, and now it’s an army of people on the ground helping to recover,” Brolund said.
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