UPDATE: Keremeos Creek wildfire near Penticton grows to 150 hectares

The Keremeos Creek wildfire 21 kms southwest of Penticton has has grown to an estimated 150 hectares.

The fire near Apex Mountain was only discovered yesterday. B.C. Wildfire says the fire jumped Green Mountain Road to the east overnight.

It is considered an interface fire. An evacuation order is in place. Find more information here.

B.C. Wildfire has 18 people on the ground, four helicopters and local fire firefighters protecting structures. A parattack crew was also called in around noon today.

"They parachute out of planes," Fire Information Officer Aydan Coray said. "They come from Fort St. John and support as much as necessary."

The terrain is considered not suitable for fixed wing air support.

It's also earned its own incident management team in the coming days. This is a wildfire of note.

It's one of three fires in the area.

The Mount Hawthorne fire has grown to 1.4 hectares overnight.

The fire is in mountainous terrain just off Highway 97 between Kaleden and Okanagan Falls and was discovered July 26. It is not threatening homes or impacting highways.

B.C. Wildfire and local fire departments were working on the fire.

Another smaller wildfire nearby, called the Mount McLellan fire is considered under control and stopped at .04 hectares.

The fires came at the height of a heatwave across the province. Environment Canada has also issued a smoky skies bulletin warning that people with pre-existing conditions health conditions are likely to experience effects from smoke exposure.

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