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Evacuated Apex Mountain Village residents get to go back home

Residents can go home at noon Aug. 16 as Keremeos Creek fire stabilizes
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This picture of Apex Mountain Village was taken Aug. 8 where fire services worked tirelessly protecting and fire smarting evacuated properties in preparation should the Keremeos Creek Fire turn in their direction. On Aug. 16, residents of Apex were allowed back home. (Apex Fire Brigade)

Residents of Apex Mountain Village get to go back home after being evacuated for 12 days due to the Keremeos Creek fire.

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen Emergency Operations Centre (RDOS EOC) has rescinded the evacuation order for properties at the Apex Mountain Village effective Wednesday, Aug. 16, at 12 p.m.

Apex Mountain Village will remain on evacuation alert due to a continued threat from the Keremeos Creek wildfire. Apex was put on evacuation order Aug. 4.

If you are not a resident or property owner at Apex Mountain Village, please avoid the area during the re-entry process, the RDOS EOC asked.

A welcome back re-entry kit will be provided to residents and property owners. Copies will also be available at the Apex Volunteer Fire Rescue hall. A digital copy is available online: emergency.rdos.bc.ca

The Apex Mountain waste transfer station will be available for residential garbage drop-off.

Structural protection crews have conducted FireSmart activities for all residential properties at Apex. This includes moving wood piles, trimming branches and covering structures to reduce the potential of ember fires as well as putting sprinklers on homes. Residents and property owners should inspect their properties upon returning.

“We’re very happy to welcome you back to Apex, and your intact homes,” wrote the Apex Fire Brigade in a Facebook post.

“Through the combined efforts of the BC Wildfire Service, Apex Volunteer Fire Rescue, and our fire department families from across B.C. we were able to successfully prevent any negative wildfire impacts to the Apex Mountain community, and the surrounding area.”

Slackwater Brewing held a fundraiser for Apex Fire Brigade on Saturday, Aug. 14, raising $15,000.

Apex Mountain Resort general manager James Shalman also sent out a ‘massive thank you’ to all the firefighting crews who worked so hard to keep the community safe.

The water and sewer systems at Apex are fully operational but the Apex Fire Brigade is asking that residents don’t sprinkler their gardens and lawns to conserve water ‘just in case the wildfire does return.’

An evacuation order remains in effect for 25 properties on Green Mountain Road, Sheep Creek Road, and Highway 3A in Electoral Area I.

There are now 647 properties on alert (Electoral Areas G and I) Apex Mountain Village, Sheep Creek Road south and Highway 3A, Farleigh Lake and Maron Lake, north of Olalla, and Olalla. Olalla residents were taken off evacuation order last week.

The Keremeos Creek wildfire started July 29 off Green Mountain Road, quickly spreading and causing numerous evacuation orders and alerts.

READ MORE: Richter Mountain wildfire, near Osoyoos being held

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Monique Tamminga

About the Author: Monique Tamminga

Monique brings 20 years of award-winning journalism experience to the role of editor at the Penticton Western News. Of those years, 17 were spent working as a senior reporter and acting editor with the Langley Advance Times.
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