Emergency official evacuates own family as residents open gates for horses
The Bald Range fire in British Columbia’s Okanagan region has doubled in size since it was first detected on Friday illustrations and now spans more than 36 square miles (95 sq km) across the Summerland and Okanagan-Similkameen districts, according to the BC Wildfire Service. The agency said the fire remained “out of control” as of Saturday morning.
As the fire approached, officials ordered the evacuation of Summerland’s entire population of roughly 12,000 people, along with about 8,000 residents of neighbouring Peachland. Summerland city officials said early Saturday that power had been lost across the town.
Erick Thompson, an emergency official with the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, described the blaze as one of the “quickest-moving, largest fires in such a short time” he had seen in the area. Thompson spent Friday evening at the emergency operations centre giving updates on the spreading fire. By Saturday morning, he said in a video posted from his car that he had left the centre to move his own family out.
“I had to leave the EOC to come and get my family to leave this area. We’re heading south,” Thompson said.
It was not yet clear how many structures had been destroyed in the blaze, officials said.
The fire has also complicated efforts to move livestock, with residents telling CBC that people who could not reach their horses left gates open in the hope the animals would find their own way to safety. Some owners painted markings on their horses to make them easier to identify later, CBC reported.