From The BC Wildfire Service:
The Christie Mountain Wildfire is estimated to be 2000 hectares at 9:38 PM Thursday, August 20.
The fire is burning in difficult rocky sloped terrain with limited access points for ground crews and heavy equipment. Crews and resources were challenged by the steep terrain as well as visibility yesterday. Poor visibility limited the use of fixed wing aircraft to the sections of the fire with better visibility.
The potential challenge for tomorrow is winds forecasted out of the south that are expected to be between 20-40 kilometres per hour and could gust up to 70 kilometres per hour.
Resources:
• 40 firefighters
40 firefighters are working on site overnight tonight and are being supported by two water tenders shuttling water. They are working in conjunction with structure protection personnel and multiple fire departments. Crews made great progress on the southwest flank of the fire building and strengthening control lines for values protection.
An increased amount of structural protection teams will be stationed throughout the community starting tomorrow morning to perform assessments and proactively triage infrastructure. This action is a precautionary measure to mitigate risk to homes in the area ahead of an approaching weather system that may cause challenging fire behaviour.
For evacuation information regarding alerts and orders please see the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen and the City of Penticton