Despite increased fire activity from the Upper Park Rill Creek wildfire near Twin Lakes, it was kept inside its boundaries over the weekend.
The increased activity on Saturday, when Penticton broke a heat record dating back to the 1920s, led to new evacuation alerts issued by the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen on Sunday night for the Willowbrook area.
On Monday, BC Wildfire Service information officer Shaelee Stearns said that despite the increased activity due to the higher temperatures and increased winds there was no significant growth on the fire.
“It is still considered being held,” said Stearns. “It hasn’t left the larger predetermined boundaries. The alerts that were put in place were precautionary, just with the activity we had been seeing.”
The fire is still listed at 2,046 hectares in size by the BC Wildfire Service.
There are 13 personnel on the fire working mainly on the southeast corner, which saw the main activity over the weekend, as well as a helicopter that is working on the Upper Park Rill Creek and the Crater Creek fire as necessary.
The conditions on the fire are expected to be calmer than the weekend, with activity hopefully decreasing as the week goes on.
“Generally we’re supposed to have slightly cooler temperatures today, which will be beneficial but it is still going to be quite dry out there,” said Stearns. “We’re still expecting it to be windy today, so we will monitor and see how that affects the fire.”
READ MORE: New evacuation alerts issued as wildfire near Penticton flares up
The RDOS issued alerts for 12 properties along parts of Willowbrook Road, Lillian Road, as well as the Ripley Lake Recreation Site and Madden Lake Recreation Site.
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