Oliver fires

[Frisk]

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/146016/2-fires-spark-near-Oliver

These ones look bad.

[Bretbaby]

Oh my goodness! This is what they look like?

http://globalnews.ca/news/2167018/two-f ... 1d71e1b52f

[Frisk]

From the Facebook page. 200 and 90 hectares.

UPDATE: The BC Wildfire Service is responding to two new wildfires located north and south of the community of Oliver.
The fires, currently sized at approximately 90 and 200 hectares, started at approximately 6:00 p.m. and the cause is unknown at this time.
Due to the proximity of these fires to the community an evacuation order and alert has been issued.
Firefighters are on site, along with helicopter support. Airtankers will be working the fire as well when safe to do so.
The priority for the BC Wildfire Service is the protection of life and property while maintaining the safety of fire personnel.

[Bretbaby]

Castanet updated their info and it looks like air support was called off due to the wind. Could be a scary night in Oliver tonight.

[Frisk]

Not good.

[Frisk]

Scary stuff.

[JBX]

I have friends there, they are leaving their house right now, ash everywhere on the streets.

How the heck did it get so bad so fast?

[Bunnyhop]

I have friends there, they are leaving their house right now, ash everywhere on the streets.

How the heck did it get so bad so fast?

Wind. And lots of it.

[JBX]

I'm sort of new here, only three years in, and I must say fire SCARES THE HELL out of me now.. I've never been so scared of fire since I've seen what happens here.

Doesn't help that Kaleden is.. well, rip to burn to the ground with all the dead undergrowth on the hills....



Phone pic of the fire from inside oliver.

[Bretbaby]

Check out this video:

https://twitter.com/Aaron_GlobalBC/stat ... 6162019328

[TonyO]

Left there about 1/2 hr ago.....town is completely covered in smoke and driving by the north fire, very difficult to see how low it was. Wind was changing North to Northwest which is not good. Earlier in the evening heard a few explosions from the North fire.

[Bretbaby]

Forest Service says both Oliver area fires are growing.

"Two wildfires are burning out of control in the hills west of Oliver... forcing residents from their homes.

The Testalinden Creek fire is seven kilometers south of Oliver and the BC Forest service now estimates its size at 450 hectares.

An evacuation order is in effect but we do not yet know how many properties are involved.

The Wilson Mountain Fire is one kilometer north of Oliver and is now estimated at 90 hectares in size.

An evacuation order is also in effect for this fire, but again we don't know how many properties.

The RDOS is setting up an Emergency Operations Centre.

The cause of both fires which started early this evening is unknown.

Ground Crews and helicopters are working on both fires."

[JBX]

Wow, hoping for the best for everybody involved down there. My friends have left and basically said the same thing, near their place the -water tower- was on fire. *bleep* lol?

[canuck500]

Wind and fine fuels like they have down there mean fires can really get going as you can see.

[JBX]

Very scary.



Picture from inside Oliver, its very close to crossing into the city according to my buddy.