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OKANAGAN A’S to play in their first B.C. Premier Baseball League playoff Final 4 tournament this weekend in Nanaimo.
DOWNTOWN KELOWNA Association finds a hearty appetite for its Taste of Downtown promotional event held on Saturday.
LOCAL VETERANS were given some welcome news from local MP Ron Cannan concerning access to services provided to them by the federal government.
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TUESDAY July 31, 2012 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ FOREST FIRE
▼ HIGHLANDS RETIREMENT RESIDENCE
Wilson Landing Seniors scramble to escape from fire blaze thriving in summer heat Jennifer Smith STAFF REPORTER
STAFF REPORTER
Fire crews have been battling back the blaze in Wilson’s Landing for several days, and they’re not expected to get a reprieve soon with challenging weather on the horizon. “The forecast calls for continued hot and dry weather, and the wind is expected to pick up,” said Michaela Swan, a forest service fire information officer shortly before the Capital News press deadline Monday afternoon. It’s those very conditions that caused the fire to change in status so rapidly. It was sparked by lightning on Friday night but was declared contained by noon on Sunday.
A steady breeze increased “fire behaviour” throughout the night, said Swan, and that kicked debris downhill, across tinter-dry land and past a fire line that crews had initially set up. By Monday morning it had doubled in size and an evacuation alert was issued to 40 to 50 homes in the Jenny Creek subdivision, as well as those along Blue Grouse Road, Browse Road and parts of Westside Road, all in the Wilson’s Landing area of West Kelowna. Westside Road was closed for much of Monday, but it was re-opened by day’s end when the fire See Heat A7
DOUG FARROW/CAPITAL NEWS
JENNIFER SMITH/CAPITAL NEWS
THE FOREST SERVICE brought in air tankers on
IT TOOK four men to pull one resident from the burning building after he returned to
Saturday to try and help bring the Wilson Landing forest fire under control.
rescue his cats. The resident emerged with memorabilia in hand and had to be temporarily restrained by bystanders to ensure he would not go back into the burning building.
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A three-alarm blaze at Highlands Retirement Residence Monday morning saw some quick thinking bystanders step in to save an elderly man and his cat. Located at 400 Snowsell St., the home is on the outer edge of residential development in Glenmore and it took some time for rescue crews, both regular firefighters and members of the Glenmore paid on-call crew, to arrive at the scene. As the time passed, an elderly man who had already cleared the building ran back inside to save his cats. Passersby jumped in to pull him back out of the burning structure, saying they could already see flames lapping at his room as they forced him out. “It went up quick. About 30 seconds and it was in full flames,” said Howard Pfefferle, who pulled up to the Snowsell Street retirement home at 10 a.m. after noticing a plume of thick smoke. He called 911, then ran in to rescue the elderly man, managing to get the man and one of the animals, which bit him in the process. He and a handful of other bystanders then tried to help staff ensure others were not trapped inside. “…We just went door to door trying to kick the doors in and banging on the doors; we had a lot of staff running up and down the hallway, so we believe we got everybody,” he said. Inside the structure, the hallway was full of “very thick, heavy black smoke,” meaning those involved could see no further than two feet and had to stay low in order to catch their breath. As he emerged from the building, young construction contractor Travis Wonch said he could hear people asking for help when he was inside. A residents list was checked and all 65 residents were accounted for by 10:30 a.m., though five people were treated for smoke inhalation. Some 40 firefighters managed to save the bulk of the building, but the back 18 units were destroyed in the blaze, which was described by the fire department as difficult due to the weather conditions. “The intense heat today, combined with the fast growing fire, created some challenges for firefighters,” said deputy fire chief Thomas Doherty in a statement released mid-afternoon. “…Firefighters had to be switched out frequently, due to the heat, to ensure crews did not become dehydrated.”