More evacuees return home to Summerland as firefighting efforts move to northwest

More wildfire evacuees returned home to Summerland, B.C., on Monday morning, more than a week after the Bald Range fire forced them to flee.

Three evacuation orders have been downgraded to evacuation alerts near Okanagan Lake.

The BC Wildfire Service says crews are still busy clearing up hot spots in Summerland, but they have had success in knocking down the fire perimeter closest to the communities.

Firefighting efforts will now shift west and northwest to the more forested areas.

Incident commander Hugh Murdoch said in a video update that will mean a more “traditional firefight” for crews, given the conditions.

More than 500 personnel are assigned to the Bald Range fire, along with 16 helicopters and almost 60 pieces of heavy equipment.

“The biggest challenges we’re facing would be the smoke, that’s making it really tough for the aircraft to fly and that becomes part and parcel with the drought we are facing here.”

Fire behaviour analyst Eric Kopetski said the fuels in the area are very, very dry.

“We’ve gone about 40 days without precipitation on this fire,” he said. “This has allowed our fuels to reach near-record levels of dryness.”