Little growth in North Okanagan wildfire but blaze still out of control

There has been limited growth in a wildfire burning between Vernon and Salmon Arm in the last 24 hours. The Hullcar Mountain wildfire burning in the Silver Creek area is still classified as out of control and had grown to 700 hectares as of 3 a.m. Aug. 8, from 670 hectares 24 hours earlier. The fire had doubled in size from the Aug. 6 to Aug. 7. The BC Wildfire Service reported the extra growth was in the northwest and crews were attacking the fire. More than 100 properties in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District Electoral Area D, the Township of Spallumcheen and the Splatsin First Nation are still on evacuation order after it was issued on Aug. 6, and more homes remain under an evacuation alert. In the early hours of Aug. 7, the Okanagan Indian Band placed several properties near the intersection of Salmon River Road and Heywood-Armstrong Road under evacuation alert. According to BC Wildfire, five helicopters are battling the blaze, along with 10 initial attack crews on the ground, with firefighters establishing fireguards around the site, along with structure protection specialists. The northeast corner saw the most active flames with BC Wildfire Services stating the blaze was at rank two with intermittent rank 3 fire behaviour. The scale goes from one to six, with six being the most severe. Firefighters worked overnight, along with a helicopter to battle the blaze. The fire was discovered over the long weekend and is believed to have been started by lightning. For more information regarding evacuation orders and alerts for residents in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District Electoral Area D go here https://www.csrd.bc.ca/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1963 , and for residents in the Township of Spallumcheen go here https://www.spallumcheentwp.bc.ca/blog/Press-Release-7---No-change-to-Alerts-and-Orders.htm , and the Splatsin First Nation go here https://splatsin.ca/evacuation-order , and for the Okanagan Indian Band go here https://www.okib.ca/news/ . This is an operational update provided yesterday, Aug. 7, by Kamloops Fire Centre information officer Nicole Bonnett and Vernon Zone wildfire officer Darcy MacLeod. To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer mailto:bbulmer@infonews.ca  or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .