More Joe Rich residents can return home thanks to reduced fire activity overnight.
The Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre has partially rescinded the Philpott Road fire evacuation order to allow 125 residents from 53 properties to go home.
Those properties are:
Residents are still under an evacuation alert and should be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Only household pets, such as cats and dogs, are being allowed back at this time.
About 35 properties affecting 77 residents remain on an evacuation order:
Highway 33 is open in both directions with reduced speed in the fire zone between Schram Rd and Cardinal Creek Rd.
(9:50 AM)
About 88 properties are still on an evacuation order, almost a week after the Philpott Road fire broke out.
The order impacts about 202 residents, including Jan Fort, who lives on Three Forks Road.
She's been staying at a hotel with her 3 dogs since being evacuated on Thursday.
“I was able to grab the 3 dogs, their medication and dog food- fortunately there was one bag in the car. I was able to get my 3 hens, who were fortunately in the house and some food for them out into a cage in the car,” she says “I was also able to grab a change of undies and my make-up, and I was out.”
Fort found a place to board her hens and the hotel she’s staying at has allowed her dogs but she’s still eagerly waiting to go back home.
“It’s been sorta frustrating cause nobody seems to know anything and trying to get information,” she says “And just thinking about home, when I left I was cooking a chicken and I turned the oven off and in all the hurry to get going I forgot to take it out of the oven. So this cooked chicken is still sitting in the oven and I’m just imagining what it’s gonna smell like.”
She says she’s been told by some emergency support services personnel that it may be up to 2 weeks before she’s allowed back home because of how close she lives to Philpott Road.
Support from the community has helped Fort get by- vets in the community have offered help, the government has offered pet food, Wal-mart gave gift certificates for clothing, and she says she’s been given vouchers for breakfast, lunch and dinner to different establishments.