West Kelowna’s fire chief says at least 50 local structures have been lost to the 110-square-kilometre McDougall Creek fire burning on both sides of British Columbia’s Lake Okanagan.
Jason Brolund says the damage assessment is not complete and the status of more structures is likely to be confirmed in the coming days.
He says about a half dozen neighbourhoods in West Kelowna escaped fire damage, including Smith Creek, Tallus Ridge, Shannon Lake, the Lenz Road Trailer Park and Rose Valley.
Officials say crews have made good progress over the past few days and there have been no structural losses in West Kelowna in the last 24 hours.
Kelowna Fire Chief Travis Whiting has confirmed five homes have been destroyed by the wildfire in his city, while Lake Country Chief Darren Lee says two to three structures have been lost in his community.
The BC Wildfire Service says crews have been taking advantage of recent good weather to go into neighbourhoods and extinguish fires around homes and create a “guard” to prevent more structural losses.
