Oliver fires

[ferri]

http://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/ ... tches-fire

[Frisk]

Looks like the warehouse is directly below one of the fires.

[ferri]

i imagine burning debris landed on the roof. just a guess!

[Bretbaby]

It's not directly below.

I'm also hearing reports of a fire near Road 18.

[watchkat]

Warehouse catches fire

We came up valley into Oliver just before 4pm and could see a single large black smoke and figured it was not a forest fire. When we came into Oliver they turned us right at Fairview......it was a very disorganized roadblock with one black cop vehicle and two "police vested" persons standing in the intersection motioning the right turn......most like us assumed this was perhaps a gas station fire by the park at north end of Oliver and so we were being rerouted behind Main Street.

We came back up onto the Hwy and found two more police vehicles with a male and female stopping us and making us turn left up into a subdivision and back south........no instructions other than to go that way. Poor transport drivers ahead of us weaving down the narrow residential streets. The one in front of us was from Oregon and he parked it on a side street just by a Hwy 97 intersection. We did the loop and I returned down to the north roadblock again.

I proceeded toward them despite the arm waving and asked if there was a way up the valley other than the highway and he responded "I don't know sorry, I'm just stopping traffic". The female walked over and I asked her and she directed me back south to Fairview intersection again and said to follow it out to the intersection (stay on this road until I reached a main intersection and it would take me up and out to hwy at Jackson Triggs.

I followed instructions and was around the blockage and out in about 5 minutes.

The message in news here states the highway was closed until 7pm.

I wonder why those waving their arms at Fairview and hwy 97 couldn't be more specific than raising their arms?
There was no one directing all of us away from the left turn lane behind town and no explanation that the fire was beyond town. We followed a Wisconsin and Oregon car and in a summer tourist season you would have thought a bit of direction at intersections to get traffic out on the right road would have helped immensely.

AND as we rejoined the highway by Jackson Triggs (there is a service station at the junction also) There was nothing to tell all those headed south that they were going to be sitting or stopped......there is no cross road to get you back where we were without coming all the way back up the highway north.

They work hard I know, but it was a main highway and no one was talking to anyone to help them.

[Bunnyhop]

Warehouse catches fire

We came up valley into Oliver just before 4pm and could see a single large black smoke and figured it was not a forest fire. When we came into Oliver they turned us right at Fairview......it was a very disorganized roadblock with one black cop vehicle and two "police vested" persons standing in the intersection motioning the right turn......most like us assumed this was perhaps a gas station fire by the park at north end of Oliver and so we were being rerouted behind Main Street.

We came back up onto the Hwy and found two more police vehicles with a male and female stopping us and making us turn left up into a subdivision and back south........no instructions other than to go that way. Poor transport drivers ahead of us weaving down the narrow residential streets. The one in front of us was from Oregon and he parked it on a side street just by a Hwy 97 intersection. We did the loop and I returned down to the north roadblock again.

I proceeded toward them despite the arm waving and asked if there was a way up the valley other than the highway and he responded "I don't know sorry, I'm just stopping traffic". The female walked over and I asked her and she directed me back south to Fairview intersection again and said to follow it out to the intersection (stay on this road until I reached a main intersection and it would take me up and out to hwy at Jackson Triggs.

I followed instructions and was around the blockage and out in about 5 minutes.

The message in news here states the highway was closed until 7pm.

I wonder why those waving their arms at Fairview and hwy 97 couldn't be more specific than raising their arms?
There was no one directing all of us away from the left turn lane behind town and no explanation that the fire was beyond town. We followed a Wisconsin and Oregon car and in a summer tourist season you would have thought a bit of direction at intersections to get traffic out on the right road would have helped immensely.

AND as we rejoined the highway by Jackson Triggs (there is a service station at the junction also) There was nothing to tell all those headed south that they were going to be sitting or stopped......there is no cross road to get you back where we were without coming all the way back up the highway north.

They work hard I know, but it was a main highway and no one was talking to anyone to help them.

Sounds like you were coming through very close to when it started and they may have still been responding. Those first few minutes can be a hive of activity and the first thoughts are getting the responders there. getting traffic through would be secondary. ill bet within 20 minutes or so they had traffic detouring via Leighton Crescent. You just happened along at the wrong time.

[Bretbaby]

Possible flare up...

Borrowed photo.

[canuck500]

They could also be burning off as well.

[Verminator]

I just drove through Osoyoos and Oliver from Hwy3 on my way back home to Vernon from Trail. There wasn't a lot to see besides some burnt hillsides and there wasn't nearly as much smoke in the air as I expected from the reports. It was almost dark when I stopped at the Anarchist Mtn lookout and from there everything looked pretty normal aside from some smoke that I could see to the north, presumably from the Oliver area, but no flames were visible at all. I was anticipating a serious delay once I got to Oliver because of the structure fire I'd just found out about on the BC Road Reports website but by the time I got there the road was open. There were a few folks in safety vests standing around but no emergency vehicles that I could see.

Let's hope the worst is over and there aren't any more flare-ups.

[Nyan]

It's been really windy all morning in Osoyoos. A few planes taking water from the lake over to the fire. Seems like the smoke has picked up a bit since this morning when there was little to none.

[Swoop]

They could also be burning off as well.

...yes - they noted burn offs being conducted in an update posted recently...

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#146215

[Bretbaby]

Some increased air traffic this afternoon for those burn offs I guess. This time over Mt. Kobau.

[Bretbaby]

Smoke is picking up in Oliver and Penticton as the winds increase and the fire grows.

Ash is falling in Oliver as well.

[RBPP]

Bad smoke now in Cawston/Keremeos. Seems to be coming from the oliver fire which looks like it is now heading over the mountain here. Not sure if this is the same fire or another near mt kobau.

[gman313]

New Evacuation Order as result of flareup