Firefighters spent Saturday patrolling the site of an extinguished grass fire near Okanagan Falls that came within about 10 metres of two homes.
The 0.4-hectare blaze lit up on Friday afternoon on Green Lake Road just a few kilometres from the Highway 97 turn-off. The fire burned from alongside the road and up a steep hillside that is bounded at the top by a driveway that acted as a guard.
“We had guys on the way there within two minutes,” said Rob Oliver, deputy chief of the Okanagan Falls Volunteer Fire Department. “That was the key right there.”
He said seven firefighters and two trucks from his department were able to quickly contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading to the nearby homes.
The B.C. Forest Service also deployed a 10-person crew and helicopter to help, while an air tanker circled overhead just in case, said information officer Michaela Swan.
She said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but it’s suspected to have been human-caused.
As of Saturday afternoon, there were no fires of note in the Kamloops Fire Centre, according to the forest service.
Swan said it’s been a quiet summer in the region, as fire crews have responded to date to just 360 fires, well off the 10-year average of 468.
The fire danger is still considered high throughout most of the South Okanagan.