UPDATE: 9:35 a.m.
Cooler weather today is expected to help in the fight against the Christie Mountain wildfire burning at the southern edge of Penticton.
Environment Canada forecasts mainly cloudy conditions today, with a 30 per cent chance of showers and high of 28 C – several degrees cooler than the recent heat wave, which saw temperatures nearing 40 degrees.
Tonight should also be cooler, dipping down to 15 C.
UPDATE: 6:30 a.m.
There have been no updates overnight since the BC Wildfire Service reported making "great progress" on the Christie Mountain wildfire burning at the southern edge of Penticton.
Castanet will be checking in with the City of Penticton, Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, and the wildfire service, and will update with the latest information this morning.
Forty firefighters remained on the scene overnight.
UDPATE 9:15 p.m. (Aug. 19)
The BC Wildfire Service says firefighter crews were challenged Wednesday by rocky terrain and heavy smoke.
In an update shortly before 9 p.m., the BCWS said the Christie Mountain wildfire is still estimated at 1,400 hectares in size.
“The fire is burning in difficult rocky sloped terrain with limited access points for ground crews and heavy equipment,” BCWS said. “This afternoon, crews and resources were challenged by the steep terrain as well as visibility. Poor visibility limited the use of fixed wing aircraft to the sections of the fire with better visibility.”
Fire activity decreased Wednesday afternoon to exhibit rank 1 and 2 behaviour. Eighty-six provincial firefighters were on site Wednesday supported by nine helicopters.
“They made great progress and continued work on the southwest flank of the fire building and strengthening control lines for values protection and in some cases using small scale hand ignitions to remove pockets of unburnt fuel,” BCWS said, but did not offer an estimate on percentage of containment of the fire.
“Forty firefighters will remain on site overnight to work with structure protection personnel and be supported by two water tenders.”
The province says a “Type 1 Incident Management Team” is mobilizing and will be arriving in the coming days from across the province.
UPDATE 8:55 p.m. (Aug. 19)
The Christie Mountain wildfire has remained very active after dusk.
While the blaze is not glowing with the same intensity as Tuesday night, a Castanet live stream is showing trees candling and as light winds appear to blow towards to the south.
BC Wildfire's last update on the fire at 5:25 p.m. said the fire remains estimated at 1,400 hectares.
UPDATE 6:30 p.m. (Aug. 19)
The owner of Painted Rock Estate Winery on the now-burning Skaha Bench says the 1,400-hectare Christie Mountain wildfire is about a kilometre from their vineyards.
Like the adjacent Skaha Bluff’s Provincial Park, the winery is closed, owner John Skinner told Glacier Media on Wednesday afternoon. "There are no staff up there. It's really scary."
Helicopters hovered above as Skinner spoke, and he recalled how yesterday evening a saving grace came in the form of fire retardant.
"Very thankfully, last night, when the bombers were out in the early evening, the last four passes of the day were putting down retardant in a line, and that saved us," he said.
Skinner said a line or fire retardant largely stood as a proverbial line in the sand to keep the blaze from crossing nearer than about one kilometre from the winery.
"It had broken the line, but not seriously," said Skinner, who has owned the winery since 2004, and invested millions of dollars into planting 27 acres of grapes using clones and rootstock sourced and propagated from a Bordeaux nursery.
Skinner said that he believes that his grape clusters are safe from settling smoke particles as they are still draped in leaves. The harvest is not slated to take place until October, he added.
"We’re very hopeful," Skinner said. "The fire is on the hill behind us. You stand at Painted Rock and you look at the hill. The smoke isn’t affecting us but its ominously close."
So far just one home, in the Heritage Hills neighbourhood, has been confirmed lost to the blaze.
- with files from Glen Kordstrom, Business In Vancouver
