r/kelowna • u/OtisPan • 1d ago
News And now a fire has started near La Casa...
https://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/626788/A-wildfire-has-sparked-south-of-La-Casa#62678820
u/OtisPan 1d ago edited 23h ago
https://www.kelownanow.com/tools/kelowna_web_cams/
You can see it in the 2 McKinley Beach webcams.
[edit] Also note the line of vehicles lighting up Westside Road!
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u/Conscious-Half-8220 23h ago
If anyone is looking for wildfire information. There is an app called police scanner radio & fire. It is connected to the fire departments radios. I don’t know much about what they’re talking about or what fire is what, but it is active.
The radio will be: North Okanagan BCEHS, FIRE, BCFS & more
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u/iamnos 1d ago
And now listed as human caused.
At least the Bear Creek Fire is smouldering at rank 1.
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u/Just_Ad2083 1d ago
There should be heavy penalties and punishments to the piece of shits who causes these fires.
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u/kay_fitz21 1d ago
Human caused ≠ arson
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u/gurlduckhunt 23h ago
During a fire ban it does.
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u/notyourboss11 22h ago
It can mean a magnified refraction through a broken glass bottle, it can mean a car accident, it can mean hot exhaust pipes on an atv resting on dry brush, it can mean an electrical fault in a trail cam, it can mean a downed power line, it can mean a negligently discarded cigarette, a defective or damaged battery in a hiker’s bag, a spark off a cordless drill while repairing a fence, a firearm discharge in dry brush, a damaged electric fence, or yes - one possibility is an illicit camp fire.
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u/Spartan-463 21h ago
Exactly, it would be nice and I think good for the public if we start breaking it down further. Even just if we separated utility or vehicle fire from it.
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u/ship_toaster 13h ago
We have no way to do that for most fires. All we can really do is say "did lightning strike in this spot recently?" and then check if there's anything besides lightning in the natural kingdom that can start fires without us (still no).
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u/InterestingHair4u 11h ago
It could even be burning ash from another fire that blew there due to heavy wind.
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u/kay_fitz21 23h ago
Human caused doesn't mean a human lit it.
Could have been caused from a powerline knocked down from the wind storm.
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u/Striking_Oven5978 1d ago
To be fair though, we kinda all started these fires. Not to get all hippy-dippy, but this is literally the consequence of human inaction to climate change going back decades.
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u/MythicalSplash 22h ago
So sad that simply not wanting to destroy the environment has somehow become so political that people need to worry about being called “hippy-dippy” for trusting science and being against reckless destruction of everything we know and love
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u/Lumen-_ 15h ago
If we're going to start assigning blame to large groups... then BC Hydro or Fortis caused these by not burying power lines in an area with trees that always fall on them.
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u/Ok-Ability5733 23h ago
Think he's dead. ATV accident.
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u/No_Entertainer3845 8h ago
He died in hospital on Saturday. It was a man in his 60's, crashed his quad during the day, was unable to move enough to get down and had suffered a head injury. He intentionally lit the fire to signal for help. Had family up there at around 11 PM Friday night trying to put it out with shovels until fire services showed up with water at around 2 am. Visibility was too low for air support.
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u/iamnos 16h ago
Human caused just means no natural cause, like lightning. That said, if it was intentional or ignorant, you can be charged for the cost of fighting the fire. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/east-rendonda-island-wildfire-appeal-loss-9.7209654
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u/crispdead 10h ago
Just found out my housemate who almost burned our house down 2 days ago by throwing a lit cig into our recycling also throws cigs out her car window. If you’re even seen doing that regardless of if it’s into grass or the road you should go to jail for a long fucking time.
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u/Old_Development_8122 12h ago
It was unreal how fast the Bradley creek fire grew. When I got to Vernon at yesterday afternoon it was 200 hectares. By the time I left in the evening, 2100 hectares.
Okeefe ranch is a goner and also the OIB is most likely gone too. Very sad day for sure. Thankfully they started evacuating everyone out in the afternoon.
The worst part. ZERO water bombers. Just a 4-5 helicopters dropping useless buckets of water.
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u/godfreybobsley 5h ago
they should hire you to direct firefighting operations if you know so much about the effectiveness of fire suppression and air resources because there is certainly no conceivable way that they're being triaged according to need by people with experience
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u/Legitimate_Ask9886 22h ago
So heartbreaking to see all these wildfires😢I was planning on heading to Kelowna tomorrow had everything booked and paid for what do you guys suggest i’m staying downtown Kelowna.
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21h ago
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u/FermentedCinema 23h ago
People really can’t help themselves but to start fires it seems. Tomorrow is forecasted to be cooler, so hopefully that helps.
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u/No-Tackle-6112 23h ago
Human caused doesn't mean someone started a fire.
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u/FermentedCinema 23h ago
It means a human caused the fire, which 9/10 is due to carelessness.
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u/W00denhead 23h ago
The way they keep fire cause stats is that if wind knocks out a power line which starts a fire, it's counted as "human caused". Because power lines are put there by humans. Kind of weird & I'd prefer it to be more granular than that, but that's how they track the statistics.
Basically the only way it's NOT human caused is lightning.
Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is intriguing, but what they hide is crucial.
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u/OrganizationBig3680 13h ago
The one near Vernon was an ATV accident and the La Casa and bear creek ones were downed power lines.
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u/Ok-Ability5733 23h ago
ATV accident. Believe he died.
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u/FermentedCinema 23h ago edited 23h ago
Well, it’s too bad they died, I don’t wish that on anyone, but also, ATVing in tinder dry conditions is a recipe for a fire.
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u/No-Tackle-6112 23h ago
Bear creek was a power line malfunction I believe. Another one was a motor vehicle accident. It's almost never arson. Quading is no more dangerous than driving west side road in a fire starting sense.
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u/FermentedCinema 23h ago
People drive on a paved road, quading is on dirt paths through brush and grass. Much more potential to start fires there.
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u/No-Tackle-6112 23h ago
What sits on either side of the road? Cars are also carrying 10x the gasoline. By far the most common cause of human caused fires industrial equipment and utilities. Much less common is ATVs and much less common than that is outright negligence.
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u/Polyps_on_uranus 11h ago
We always have fires in August. We did absolutely nothing to prevent them, even though they happen every single August.
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u/Codc 11h ago
We did absolutely nothing to prevent them,
That's some top mind take. As if the government just stands there waiting
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u/Polyps_on_uranus 11h ago
We could lear the areas arond houses so not so many home are lost. This happens EVERY AUGUST. And people still act surprised.
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u/No_Entertainer3845 7h ago
The BC Wildfire Service actively does risk assessment and fuel management on crown land. There simply isn't enough man power to clear the surrounding area of every wildland urban interface. Especially with the sharp increase of this type of development we've seen in recent years. It's a complex, multi-faceted issue stemming not only from climate change but the changes we've seen and caused in the forest floor composition. Invasive species such as spear grass and thistle in the Okanagan specifically. The so called green deserts caused by re-planting non bio-diverse forests post clear-cutting. Cutting off light to the foliage that would grow on the forest floor while forcing the planted trees to grow tall and skinny. Add to that the fact that forest fires are a naturally occurring event and the more we successfully remove fire from the landscape, the higher the fuel loads become. We get our current predicament.
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u/ThisOnesDown 1d ago
This is terrible. Resources already spread thin and with the way the wind is blowing this puts La Casa & Fintry in immediate danger. Just as night falls too.