Commemorative shirts to remember 2015 wildfire season in South Okanagan

PENTICTON – A new fundraising effort will help remember the 2015 wildfire season in the South Okanagan and Rock Creek areas while raising money for local firefighters.

Oliver Fire Department media spokesman Rob Graham says the department came up with the idea of a charity T-shirt as a way to raise funds to help the Midway-Rock Creek Fire Department with the purchase of firefighting equipment and to support the organization for their efforts fighting the Rock Creek wildfire this summer.

“We decided all funds raised from the T-shirt sales will go towards the purchase of a firefighting unit developed by local manufacturer Munekhof Manufacturing,” Graham says. 

The units, made up of a tank, frame, engine, pump and hose reel, are designed to be loaded in the back of a pickup for use in wildfire suppression. Graham says the Oliver department has two of the units, which are proving invaluable to the department’s wildfire fighting efforts.

The Oliver department plans to supply T-shirts to local and Rock Creek firefighters as well as to neighbouring community departments who helped fight the Rock Creek and Oliver wildfires this summer. Graham says plans are in the works to market the T-shirts to those who don’t have internet access as well. The department plans to sell them for $20 each.

The Testalinden Creek fire near Oliver is about 5,140 hectares and 90 per cent contained. The fire, which was discovered Aug. 14, is the only fire of note in the Kamloops Fire Centre, though another seven are considered active.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.