Important Wildfire Information ⬇️

When there’s fire – there’s reliable info from BCWFS, the COEOC, District of Peachland – and of course updates on The Peachland Phoenix local news page:

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations – if there’s an evacuation alert / order, you’ll hear it from them.

Sign up for email alerts from the COEC

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations – Facebook page

BC Wildfire Service

BC Wildfire website

Map of current wildfire situation throughout the province

BC Wildfire Service – Facebook page

Stages of a Wildfire (from BCWFS):

Wildfire behaviour ranking (from BCWFS):

Rank 1 – smouldering ground fire.

Rank 2 – low vigour surface fire – meaning there’s visible, open flame but at a slow rate of speed. Crews can usually handle this on the ground.

Rank 3 – moderately vigorous surface fire with occasional candling of trees. At this point, ground crews may need to be backed up with air support. Control lines can still be done with some success

Rank 4 – This is when you start to see more grey and black smoke. There’s a moderate to fast spread on the ground, and short aerial bursts through the forest canopy. The head of the fire may be beyond what ground crews can do, and more of an indirect attack is considered. Parallell attacks along the flank of the fire may also happen.

Rank 5 – Black and copper-coloured smoke. Spot fires are starting on their own. There’s limited firefighting options here – indirect attacks, planned ignitions to remove fuel in the fire’s path, and more restricted ground operations are happening here.

Rank 6 – A dominant smoke column may be seen, and more independent spot fires. Firefighting, obviously, is extremely dangerous. Structure protection and indirect large-scale ignitions may happen in an effort to steer the fire.

“Often, the safest and most prudent strategy is to pull resources back to safe areas, ensure that personnel and the general public are safe, and wait for fire behaviour to lessen before re-engaging in fire suppression operations.”

What are those red and white planes?

The BC Wildfire Service fleet includes teams of these Air Tractor AT-802F Fire Boss airtankers. You’ll usually find them working in groups of five or six. A birddog plane will lead the air tankers, directing them where to drop fire retardant or water, or foam-enhanced water. Each plane can skim up to 2,700 L of water in 15 seconds. Other airtankers in the fleet include the Convair CV-580, Avro RJ-85, Lockheed L-188 Electra and Bombardier Q400. More on different BCWFS aircraft.

Tip – you can look up the planes on a flight tracker app during a wildfire. I’ve been using Flightradar24…