Finlay Creek Fire

[grumpies daughter]

1000 hectares, and 7 forestry workers? Seriously?? Not even enough for a baseball team. Seven? This cannot be right

[JLives]

It cut my camping trip short. I was up at Peachland Lake.
It wasn't smoky at all but didn't like the idea of getting trapped. That didn't happen until I tried to visit a friend at Silver Lake on the way home. A guy passed me as I was coming in and locked the road! My friend wasn't home and when I went to leave a few minutes later discovered I was trapped. I had to drive up the actual mountain to escape. Not a road, straight up the mountain. If I was driving a car I'd still be stuck up there, right above the fire.

[GordonH]

With 143 active wildfires burning Province wide, I would suspect resources are running thin.

[Fancy]

The Finlay Creek wildfire near Peachland has not seen any growth over the last few hours and remains at 1,000 hectares in size.

Castanet

Hope this morning is better news. So many folks having to evacuate is hard on everyone.

[ferri]

'Not a panic situation'

https://www.castanet.net/news/West-Kelo ... -situation

[Dcody]

I don't get it why they don't just get a few really good guys that "knows what hes doing", not many out there really do unfortunately. Get an 8 up there, with an angle blade and cut these fires off! Just go and do it. I'll take a Dozer places people just can't fathom and cut a fire off and quick, non of this chugging around *bleep* A guy sees all the time on fires, I grew up running Bush cat, I'm not talking Mine cat operator, no offence, but running a dozer in a mine and running bush cat are two different things. you can't be a just a loader operator and figure you can go pull turns on a 45 % slope in a damn skidder when you don't know, I'm talking "bush cat" operators there's too many ranch hands and good guys that been fighting and chasing lightning strikes and range fires since they were young that would be happy to help out, Kinda a dying breed of guys honestly..So other then a few guys like myself, wheres all the bush cat operators that will run a damn dozer right and go and get fire guard in so figher fighters can get to the front with a support skidder and water tank and trucks and water? . Other then the 99% whom are retired now in there late 60's and 70's. That Finley fire should of been circled up the first night and delt with. now you know what the runoff in the spring is gonna do since it burn by the looks of it. I don't get why these fires are not delt with asap properly, I see it as its all backwards! A machine should be there # one priority. with a support crew. not a crew with a support machine maybe if needed, id rather see a few trees sacrificed for a good guard then merchantable forests destroyed, id rather see a few fish have to deal with some muddy water initially then a soot silted in stream that now dries up cause a fire went thru, well maybe some habitat lost of a lizard or a few snakes or something instead of cooking off half his ecosystem. I see it nowdays that there are so many rules and regulations put in place to guard and save everything, that nothing can be done how it should be done! and the end because of that, the end outcome is an even worse disaster then ever expected! worried about a frog in a creek and a tree so make a law where one cant water bomb a fire so burn down 10 000 acres of trees, destroy whatever creek for years and kill all the frogs instead!! This is what drives me right up the wall!!!! high five to the ground crews out there trying their hardest in too many futile positions, It really sucks standing there watching tress candle up and a fire taking off when you know it could have been prevented, it makes your stomach just sink at times and I've gotten angry standing there seeing *bleep* go outta control because the wrong call was made.

[tsayta]

Don't they have cats putting guards in there right now? (btw I'm picturing you having a Newfie accent)

[Gone_Fishin]

It cut my camping trip short. I was up at Peachland Lake.

It burns my butt that people think it's fine to go camping "just because it isn't banned yet." Stay home. There's no reason for anyone to be out there putting lives and property of others at risk. I have deer and elk tags in my pocket and a tuned bow and I'm not willing to risk going out there bow hunting right now. A bit of common sense goes a long way toward helping our communities get through this state of emergency. It's likely the person that caused the Peachland fire thought it was okay to be out there too, until something went sideways really fast.

And Horgan better issue a complete backcountry ban for the southern half of the province right now (should have happened weeks ago), as it seems common sense just isn't that common anymore.

[Queen K]

Did you see what happened in the "stay out of the back country thread" GF?

I too have been impacted by the fire season. No road trips, and most definitely no FSRs. Most boring Summer ever. Some of us are doing our part, some aren't.

[daria]

Did you see what happened in the "stay out of the back country thread" GF?

I too have been impacted by the fire season. No road trips, and most definitely no FSRs. Most boring Summer ever. Some of us are doing our part, some aren't.

Ditto. I have hardly been anywhere this summer.

I hope that they can make up the firefighter shortage somehow, with students going back to school.

I am just praying for rain for ALL of the fires. And for the safety of our firefighters. May autumn come swiftly!

[YellowBird]

I would like to thank Castanet.News for keeping their customers up to date on the Finlay Creek Fire. I live in Summerland and I thought I would be able to get up to date information from "somebody" in Summerland. I could not! Extremely frustrating and has not given me confidence in the future that I will be able to obtain information of where the fire is exactly.

[JLives]

It burns my butt that people think it's fine to go camping "just because it isn't banned yet." Stay home. There's no reason for anyone to be out there putting lives and property of others at risk. I have deer and elk tags in my pocket and a tuned bow and I'm not willing to risk going out there bow hunting right now. A bit of common sense goes a long way toward helping our communities get through this state of emergency. It's likely the person that caused the Peachland fire thought it was okay to be out there too, until something went sideways really fast.

And Horgan better issue a complete backcountry ban for the southern half of the province right now (should have happened weeks ago), as it seems common sense just isn't that common anymore.

Lol. Get off your high horse dude. Me having sandwiches in a big gravel area on the side of a lake and kayak fishing is not a fire risk. Have you even been there? Go shoot your bow and blow off some steam.

[seewood]

Hmmm a couple of things. I personally know of one D-8 cat in the south Okanagan. To transport it the blade has to come off. Seems most loggers and bush road builders have 6's as they are easier to transport and the ground/terrain for the most part is fine for a D-6 type machine. Just an observation while working around here , that's all. A d-8 can move a lot of material in a hurry, think I saw one finally on the OK MT. fire.

One reason that the ministry does not hire everyone with a cat in their back yard is liability issues. Gots to have all the liability insurance/ WCB and S-100 course under ones belt before being hired on. Ones that do, have let the local ministry office know with supporting paperwork usually before the fire season starts.

As for the supervisors on a fire, I have seen and been involved with many that were so very experienced it was great to be part of that team. On the other hand I have been under the supervision of a forest service accountant( seemed like it) where I believe the only thing they knew was the sharp end of the pencil makes the line. Way over their head dealing with a large sector of a fire.

Perhaps another report will come out of this fire season but just thinking aloud here but looking at the news reports from the western parts of North America, there are an awful lot of fires threatening properties and homes( California) and I suspect all are clamoring for air and ground resources that just are not there. Remember, in western Canada, the air resources are all contracted aircraft unlike various States where the government owns some of the aircraft. We have aircraft from Quebec and there are fires in Eastern Canada wanting the same aircraft. Same with the fires all over the province. Once a fire is threatening properties, the air tankers are terrific in laying down a retardant line to give the ground crews some time. Bummer when it gets windy and all fires end up with the same problem at the same time....

Really , this is an unprecedented fire season and if it was considered a normal season, I doubt we would be bringing in crews from Mexico and Australia.

[Poindexter]

Hope to hell Peachland lake, Headwaters and all the small lakes up in that area get spared because it's such an accessible paradise for alot of us. How's it looking at this point?

[JLives]

Hope to hell Peachland lake, Headwaters and all the small lakes up in that area get spared because it's such an accessible paradise for alot of us. How's it looking at this point?

It's fine. There wasn't even smoke up at Peachland Lake. The fire is far away.