Westside Road closed near West Kelowna due to wildfire

The Bald Range Creek Wildfire has triggered the closing of Westside Road until further notice and 18 properties are on evacuation alert.

The fire was discovered at 6:11 p.m. yesterday, July 17, and had grown to 4.08 ha by 10:50 p.m., according to BC Wildfire Service.

It is burning out of control and the cause is under investigation.

It is visible from Kelowna and Lake Country.

Drive BC says the road is closed for 6 km, from north of Lake Okanagan Resort to north of Caesar’s Landing and there are no detours.

The 18 properties on evacuation alert are from 3985 to 4069 Westside Road.

“Residents in the area are advised to be ready to leave their home at a moment’s notice,” says a posting on the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre website. “They should be prepared to be away from their home for an extended period of time, make arrangements for pets and pack essential items such as medicines and important documents.”

The site also says BC Hydro assigned a crew to an outage affecting 1,377 customers in Fintry and Killiney Beach but a BC Hydro update at 2:10 a.m. said only 69 properties were affected by then.

Go here for more updates from the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre site.

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