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Penticton vehicles torched at house affected by summer bush fire

Two vehicles have been written off after one of them caught fire in West Bench Thursday evening

Update: 7:07 p.m.

Two vehicles are out of commission at a West Bench property after a truck caught fire, and the fire spread to another car on the driveway.

Related: Penticton bush fire became ‘massive’ from large, dead trees

Don Lancaster, who lives at the property, confirmed his house was one of the properties affected with about $100,000 in damage from the fire in the gully in West Bench in July last year.

Video courtesy Shawn Rohleder

Lancaster said he had just gotten home from about a monthlong vacation and he wasn’t sure how the fire would have started.

Neighbour Shawn Rohleder said at first they thought the smoke was fog.

“Kind of had a look there, and saw no, that’s pretty dense and went out on the deck and saw the fire,” he said, adding he called 911. “It was raging pretty good, and it didn’t take long for it to spread to the car.”

Acting fire captain Wes Swaren said seven firefighters responded in two trucks and took an “aggressive” approach to the blaze.

“It did not impinge on the house. We were able to knock it down and mop it up, and now we’re determining what the cause is,” Swaren said, adding it took about five minutes to knock it down and 25 to mop up.

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Original

The Penticton Fire Department responded to a call of a vehicle on fire on Westwood Drive in the West Bench area on Thursday evening.

When firefighters arrived they found two vehicles on fire. The fire broke out in the first vehicle while it was parked in a driveway. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and are doing cleanup.

It does not appear anyone was injured as a result of the small fire.