Evacuation order, alert issued as wildfire spreads in Kelowna

The Knox Mountain wildfire in Kelowna (BC Wildfire Service)

An out of control wildfire on Kelowna’s Knox Mountain has sparked an evacuation order and alert.

The Kelowna Fire Department and BC Wildfire Service, along with helicopters and airtankers are battling the blaze that broke out Saturday afternoon.

The fire was recorded just before 2 p.m., and grew to 3.5 hectares in just a few hours. Smoke is highly visible from the city.

It is suspected to be human-caused, according to BC Wildfire Service.

“This wildfire is displaying Rank 2 and 3 fire behaviour, meaning there is visible flame and moderate rate of spread,” the service wrote on Twitter.

Just before 4 p.m., Central Okanagan Emergency Operations issued an evacuation order for residents in the Knox Mountain and Poplar Point areas.

Residents are being told to leave immediately.

Mounties and Central Okanagan Search and Rescue are assisting evacuations in Poplar Point north of Knox Mountain Park Drive. Another tactical evacuation is underway in Magic Estates from Rio Drive south to Magic Estates Drive, in all areas west of Clifton Drive.

In total, the evacuation order covers 448 properties.

An evacuation alert is in place for the remainder of the Clifton Road area and the community of Wilden, to Upper Canyon Drive north to Union Drive.

An interactive map of the areas under evacuation order and alert is available online.

RCMP is urging people to stay away from the area and those on Lake Okanagan are asked to stay clear of water bombers.

“The Magic Estates area is quite a dense residential area,” Cpl. Judith Bertrand with Kelowna RCMP said. “In addition to that, the park is visited by a lot of people that are celebrating Canada Day, visiting, hiking, so we need to make sure that these people are safe.”

Bertrand said police assisted fire crews with the evacuation to ensure public safety and that winds made the direction of the fire hard to predict.

She said Kelowna deals with the prospect of wildfires every summer and they're “always in the back of our mind here in the Okanagan region.”

“However, we have to act fast, we have to work in a coordinated effort with our partner agencies to make sure that things unfold as safe and as quickly as possible,” she said.

With files from The Canadian Press.