Thousands of residents around Okanagan Lake forced to leave ahead of advancing flames

I don't know whether my house is gone or still there or not.But that fire came so fast and furious.The fire went from 50 hectares to 400 to 1 ,000 to 5 ,000, like within two or three hours.And what was once 15 kilometers away is now right here.And yeah, so now we're just getting our animals ready.And we're probably going to head back to Kelowna before the highway closes.

We could see the horses running around into the flames.like gut -wrenching almost, like not knowing whether they would live or die and not knowing if you would have a house to go home to.

Stories of escape, of fear, of insecurity and clearly heartbreak for British Columbia's southern interior.Hello everyone, I'm Natasha Fata and you're watching CBC News Network.There's a surging wildfire in that southern interior and it is triggering mass evacuations.Thousands and thousands of people from communities all around Lake Okanagan have been forced to leave ahead of a rapidly advancing Bald Range wildfire.Now, CBC's Tanya Fletcher joins us from Vancouver with more on this story.Tanya, this story is developing so quickly.

What are the latest numbers?

So, Natasha, the two bullet points are 20 ,000 people roughly affected by the evacuation orders in this area.And the size of the fire itself has grown exponentially.It's now at nearly 10, make that 100 square kilometers.So taking you through a bit of a timeline, this is all developed fast and furious.It was around 5 p .m.

local yesterday that people started noticing some smoke, some flames.And within three hours, this fire had exploded in growth to 50 square kilometers.By midnight is when Summerland itself, the municipality, was ordered to evacuate.And by this morning, early this morning, BC Wildfire Service is showing that the fire is now, as we say, 95 square kilometers.So it is growing very fast.and spreading very quickly and in a very populated area.

Let's take you to a map of the evacuation zone right now.So, as I mentioned, overall, 20 ,000 people forced out.The entire district of Summerland, which includes the municipality itself, that alone has a population of 12 ,000 people, all ordered to leave, and 8 ,000 others just north of there, a little bit closer to Peachland, also ordered to evacuate.And just to give you a little bit of context of this whole area, if you looked a little bit north from that map, that's where we're in the north Okanogan, along that same lake, but that's where the Bradley Creek and the other twin fire have been burning up until now in the past week, already causing mass evacuations.So this whole region in the Okanogan is affected.And if you looked south of that map that we just showed you, closer to the US -Canada border, that's near a Soyuz, and that's where a nearing wildfire from Washington state has been put in place.

the fire, and that's why we're seeing so much more of the flames in this area, especially as we're pushing closer.To the B. C border.So this whole active fire zone is really the heart of this, and that's why we're just seeing such displacement and fluidity with the situation.Multiple fires, but this one, of course, is now the focus and is the most impactful right now.We've heard from evacuees just with incredible stories.Here's one person describing the fire as they left.

Every now and again you would see it burst out in flame in the smoke and then it would die down or whatever and then it would be black and then it would flare up again.So it was a kind of a continual up and down, very hard to gauge what was happening.

And we should point out as well, it's a weekend in the summer in August and this whole area, the Okanagan, is the face of summer tourism in B .C.There are wineries, there are many people on vacation, there will be a lot of tourists in these areas.And so that really just speaks to the impact and the timing as well of this fire.

You're absolutely right about the number of people who go to this beautiful part of the country every year, especially at this time.But, Tanya, you know as well as anyone, people live there all year round, and now they have to vacate their homes.What are those evacuees being told to do?

Yeah so the for locals especially this is you know such a fluid situation we did hear that around 50 people had to be airlifted out to safety presumably by helicopter last night we're still working to get more details on that but many tactical evacuations we've heard that's when officials go you know banging on doors door -to -door knocking saying get out now with the assistance of sometimes search and rescue crew sometime RCMP so that has been happening and also evacuation centers the locations have been shifting as this story develops as well, because as one, you know, they give one location, but then that one filled to capacity.So then they had to find an overflow site.So many are now going to Penticton, which is just south of Summerland.And also in West Kelowna, I believe there was one set up so people can check their, you know, local information to find out where they should go in the moment, because those locations have been changing as well.We do want to point out there has been particular concern for seniors with mobility issues as well.We were hearing this from our teams on the ground last night.

They were noticing a lot of these elderly people people at the evacuation centers.And we did get a message from Interior Health this morning, a bulletin saying that the local health authority is working to relocate 50 residents from one long term care home and nearly 200 others have been displaced from another senior center because of the evacuation orders around Summerland.So that'll be of particular note as well going forward, just to find out where these elderly and the seniors, especially with mobility issues, will be going and how they'll get there.I do want to show you one last video just to really underscore the impact of this.We have video from the highway cams.Drive BC, this is highway 97.

This is the main thoroughfare through basically the southern Okanogan here connecting Kelowna and Penticton.kind of the moment the flames jumped the highway.And if you could see further beyond that, Okanogan Lake is right next to the highway.So very visible and a very significant closure because a section of that highway is now closed in the Summerland and Peachland area.Natasha.

I find that video of the highway so frightening because it comes in 15 minute intervals and you see how quickly it's moving.Just an incredible story.We're hoping everyone is safe and sound.CBC's Tanya Fletcher in Vancouver.Thanks so much for the very latest.You bet.

So, Tanya is going to be with us throughout the day, bringing us the most up -to -date information from Vancouver.But remember that the central story today is happening in and around BC's Okanagan Valley.And we do have colleagues who are in that area watching as that fire continues to advance, watching as that smoke is taking over the highways.So, CBC's John Hernandez is in that area, and he pulled over on the side of a highway near Peachland, and he gave us a better sense of the conditions that he's witnessing.

so as you can actually see behind me we can get a view of the fire and you can see it you can see the smoke billowing from the top of the mountain and if you look look a little further down you can kind of see there's a lot of haze and that's where the the fire actually jumped highway 97 in Summerland this just a a quickly fast moving fire all of this sort of happening overnight uh and if you just look over to my other side here on highway 97 you can see the road block there's a lot of people trying to get through service vehicles work field vehicles people trying to get uh to their homes but this road is blocked uh the obviously the fire jumping over that highway making this stretch of roadtoo dangerous.We have seen some wildfire service crews passing through today, so people are getting on the ground.But this this fire was just moving so fast that it was hard for for anyone to get a handle on this.And I'll just sort of paint the picture a bit behind the curtain.We've been out in Vernon covering that devastated Bradley Creek wildfire.

And we're done our work for the day.yesterday out for for dinner and all of a sudden you can hear the the the alerts going off on everybody around you cell phone you can hear that ringing and that was around 7 30 p .m.the fire initially hit around 5 30 but the evacuation orders really started coming in one after the other at 7 30 and then all through the night you could hear alert after alert after alert come through right up until The entire district of Summerland got the evacuation orders Linda mentioned.12 ,000 people live in this community.It's a very small, tight -knit community.

People live on the mountainside, and there's also homes right down into the water, and we know the fire has spread across that entire area.A lot of people have been lending a helping hand.We've been tracking people who have volunteered to host people, people that have volunteered to help move animals.There's a lot of ranches, people with horses, goats, and other farm pets that are dying.circumstances right now.So there has been a lot of help and support but also a lot of uncertainty.

Good to have you near Peachland.Talk to me about what you're anticipating happening over the course of today and where you're going to be headed.

Yeah so we can't get to Penticton through this road right now.So we actually have to loop around.We're likely going to go through Kelowna and then take a highway south through Rock Creek then up through Osoyo.to get to Penticton.We're hoping to speak with some of the folks that have been evacuated and lived through some of these horrific circumstances.But the roadblocks don't make it easy for us.

And obviously, it's a safety concern.The roads are closed because that fire is just so rapid, widespread.So we'll be looping around through the rest of the morning and then end up in Penticton today to hopefully speak with folks and see what they're going through in real time here.

So even on the roads that are open, John, is it fairly safe driving or is the smoke still a factor in terms of your visibility?

Smoke is largely a factor through the valley when we pass through highway.through the Christian Valley through to Rock Creek, that area likely won't be as smoky.And to be quite honest, the smoke is actually not as bad where we're standing compared to maybe how it was yesterday where we spent in Vernon.It was just super thick, super gusty.The wind is quite still right now, so we're not getting a lot of smoke blown in either direction.It does seem to be kind of billowing from the fire, maybe a bit toward the south.

So we'll have to see what happens.I would expect when we come from the south up towards Penticton, and we'll be getting a lot of that haze and a lot of that smoke, which has been a bit of a challenge to live through, to work through over these last few days here.I can only imagine what it's like for people that have been living through this for, you know, much of the summer.

That's CBC's John Hernandez.