PEACHLAND (NEWS1130) – About 1,130 Peachland residents who were evacuated as a result of the the fire have been allowed to return home.

Officials say clear weather conditions and excellent firefighting efforts have helped lift a portion of the area under Evacuation Order. It’s now been reclassified as an Evacuation Alert area.

Those affected are reminded that they are on Evacuation Alert and must still be prepared to leave with little notice.

An Evacuation Order still in place for 416 people.

In total, three homes and one abandoned house have been destroyed by the fast-moving forest fire in Peachland.

Fire Chief Grant Topham says crews worked furiously through Sunday afternoon and throughout the night and managed to save many, many other homes from the wind-driven blaze.

The fire was moving so fast, crews didn’t have a tally on property damage until this morning, but witnesses said they saw homes engulfed in flames.

The RCMP says the fire to the west of the Okanagan community — in an area called Trepannier Bench — was spotted Sunday afternoon and quickly whipped into a major burn by 30 to 40kph winds.

Fire officials estimate the blaze at 200 hectares, unchanged from overnight, and it is considered 75 per cent contained. There is still no word on how the blaze started.

“Crews made progress [Monday] overnight with some rain coming through, but not a whole lot and it was accompanied by wind,” says Fire Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek. “Certainly it has subsided quite a bit, not a whole lot of active flame at the moment, mainly just smoldering. We are bringing in crews from other areas of the province to give us a hand working on it.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say [the fire is under control],” he adds. “It was expected that overnight we would see a decrease in activity. It’s still going to very much be weather dependent. We are going to be monitoring the fire very closely and working to contain it further.”

Witnesses close to the front line of the fire tells News1130 helicopters continue to dump buckets of water on the Peachland fire.

“There’s got to be about six helicopters going to Okanagan Lake, filling up and taking them to the end of Trepannier,” says Trevor Rockliffe, news director for the Okanagan’s Castanet.com.

“Fire activity this morning seems to be really light and it seems like they are really getting a handle on this thing. There are some winds but luckily there was some rain overnight and that has sort of dampened the hot spots. Crews are working hard on it,” he adds.

An emergency reception centre has been set up for people who live on about a couple of dozen roads in the area and residents are asked to visit this emergency information website for the latest updates.

Peachland Mayor Keith Fielding had to pack up and leave his house.

“Fortunately I have a motor home so I’ve been able move. So I was able to make it and follow the orders and move to a safer part,” he explains. “I’m almost unable to get into my own home because of the police blockade and fire engines.”
       
Catherine Williams of Emergency Support Services says about 150 people have registered at the emergency registration centre so far, and they are doing what they can for evacuees.

“Food, clothing and lodging if they require it right now,” she says. “If some people have places to stay, some people got stuff out but if they didn’t, we’ll look after it for the next 72 hours.”

She says the people arriving at the centre are pretty calm and the volunteers are well versed, having done this before during wildfires in previous years.
   
Don gave us a call from north of Peachland yesterday to say they are being asked to leave.

“We just had a four engine water bomber fly over, a couple of other smaller ones, the helicopters have been going back and forth, it’s really billowing up here,” he says. “They just gave us a 10 minute evacuation notice. We’re packing up our stuff and we are outta here.”

Colleen Loewen lives in Peachland, but her home is not near the fire. She tells us that some of her friends have been evacuated and that people in the city are nervous.

“I took my dog for a walk a couple hours ago, and a lot of my neighbours are out in the street, kind of watching in the distance the smoke clouds rising and everyone wondering what’s happening.”

Meanwhile, in Southern Alberta, huge grey clouds of billowing smoke have forced 2,000 people from their homes north-west of Lethbridge.

Strong winds blowing up to 100 km/hr continue to stoke the flames. The grass fire has jumped a river and also shut down a major highway in the area.