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Some still away from homes in B.C. where fire risk is never far

PEACHLAND, B.C. — Phil Kachanoski is relieved to be able to set foot inside his house again after a rapidly moving forest fire burned through the countryside near his home in Peachland, B.C., and forced him and roughly 1,500 others to flee.

PEACHLAND, B.C. — Phil Kachanoski is relieved to be able to set foot inside his house again after a rapidly moving forest fire burned through the countryside near his home in Peachland, B.C., and forced him and roughly 1,500 others to flee.

Kachanoski, a 42-year-old dentist, was among the two-thirds of the evacuees who received the all-clear to return home Monday evening, after a tense 24 hours in which flames destroyed four houses and came dangerously close to many others.

By Tuesday morning, another 150 were allowed home, leaving 258 on evacuation order.

Cool temperatures and periods of rain Monday slowed the fire as crews worked to bring it 75 per cent under control.

But officials note the danger isn’t completely gone — 1,300 still remain on evacuation alert and will have to leave if the fire flares up.

Kachanoski, who dropped off a few items at his home before returning to a hotel for Monday night, wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“We’re very happy that obviously they had gotten things under control enough that we could go back,” said Kachanoski.

“Until they know for sure that they’ve got most of the hot spots out, you’re never out of the clear in B.C.”

Those who remained under an evacuation order live near where the fire first began on the northwestern edge of town, in the same subdivision of homes, vineyards and acreages where the four houses were destroyed.

The fire started Sunday afternoon in an area on the outskirts of Peachland, a community of about 5,200 people located 380 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. Strong winds caused the fire to spread rapidly, covering three kilometres in a little more than an hour.

Four houses, including one on the vineyard where Canada’s first commercially released icewine was born in 1978, were destroyed on the first day of the fire as gusts of wind pushed the flames into the houses.

The fire left a mess of charred trees, ash and a coating of red-coloured fire retardant that blanketed homes, roads and fields.

The weather helped calm the fire, but the cool temperatures and rain are expected to be replaced by more hot dry weather for the rest of the week.

Jim Mottishaw, a forest protection officer with the provincial government, said the hot weather won’t be a problem as long as the winds remain calm, as predicted.

“The forecast is for hot, dry weather through to the weekend. That means we’ve got to secure the lines as quick as we can, and if another wind event comes up hopefully we’ve been able to hold the line,” Mottishaw said in an interview.

“Wind is the biggest concern, and because we’ve got containment around a good portion of it and lots of resources, anything that flares up we can jump on it quick. Without wind, things are looking very good.”

Forest fires are a perennial concern in the Okanagan Valley, an area where a hot, arid climate can create dangerous conditions.

Residents here remember an inferno in late August of 2003 that surrounded Kelowna, about 25 kilometres up the road from Peachland, and forced 27,000 people from their homes.

The fire eventually destroyed 239 homes, and left a landscape of bald mountainside directly across Okanagan Lake from Peachland, a constant reminder of the fire threat.

John Spackman, a 42-year-old lifelong resident of Peachland who was also among the evacuees allowed to return home Monday, said forest fires are simply part of living in the region.

Spackman, a former forest firefighter himself, suggested the risk is worth it.

“That’s the thing we have to deal with,” he said shortly after returning to his house Monday night. “You want to live in the mountains, you want to enjoy this area, we are going to have to put up with the fires. We won’t get hurricanes, we won’t get floods up here, but yeah, fire is part of being in a dry climate like this. It’s just a matter of time.”