Bad Helicopter Season

[RotorPilot]

Thursday, 2003 August 21

B.C. issues fire travel advisory

More than 850 blazes are burning across the province

The Associated Press

KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- As a wildfire near Kelowna grew fivefold in a day, the B.C. government issued its most restrictive travel advisory for the tinder-dry province.
Authorities warned people yesterday to avoid the backcountry in the southern half of British Columbia because of raging forest fires.

"We're concerned about the safety of the public out there, should another fire start, and we don't want any more human-caused fires," said Rick Clevette, a government spokesman.
He said the voluntary restriction stretches from Prince George in the north, 330 miles south to the U.S. border and from Vancouver Island to the Alberta border, a distance of 420 miles.

Full Story:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/136025_wildfires21.html

 

[rotrhd1]

disregard

 

[RotorPilot]

Friday, 2003 Aug. 22

10,000 flee B.C. fire as homes burn

Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press


Emergency officials rushed to move about 10,000 people from their suburban homes overnight in Kelowna, B.C., as an aggressive fire moved closer, and this morning, thousands more are on alert to flee.
"It was fast, it was very fast," said Karen Cairns, a regional emergency official, describing how quickly officials moved to evacuate homes in the southeast Kelowna suburbs, including Okanagan Mission, Okaview, Kettle Valley and Uplands.
"We believe between 9,000 and 10,000 people have been evacuated," Carol Suhan, an information officer at the Emergency Operation Centre, told globeandmail.com.

Full story:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/...Story/National/


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Friday, 2003 August 22 - Page A1

Kelowna fire forces 5,000 to flee

By Mark Hume And Gwendolyn Richards


NARAMATA, B.C. and VANCOUVER -- Official rushed last night to remove more than 5,000 people from their southeast Kelowna-area homes as a forest fire raged out of control on Okanagan Mountain.

Full story:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/Articl...onal/TopStories

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2003, Aug. 22


B.C. blazes still threatening - Residents pray for cooler weather

Huge balls of sparks rain down

NARAMATA, B.C.—As a mushrooming fire reduced much of Okanagan Mountain Park to ash, one resident of a small lakeshore town on evacuation alert said yesterday there was nothing left to do but pray.
"Our community is together on this," said Linda Caton, 44, who lives in Naramata, where roughly 1,000 are on evacuation notice, along with residents of some 2,000 homes in neighbouring Kelowna suburbs.
"We are praying for winds to change," she said. "It's in God's hands at this point."

Full story:
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/Conte...id=970599119419

 

[RotorPilot]

Saturday, 2003 Aug. 23

30,000 residents flee Kelowna homes

Globe and Mail Update

By Tara Perkins

Winds spurred on the forest fires that are roaring out of control in B.C.'s interior, forcing more than 20,000 people to flee Friday night. By Saturday morning, many houses had been devoured by flames.

About 30,000 residents have now been issued evacuation orders, Karen Cairns, an information officer, told globeandmail.com Friday.

A further 8,000 are still on alert, told that they might have to pack up and leave at a moment's notice, after the fire began advancing at speeds up to 100 metres/minute.

... ... ...

Full story:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/...Story/National/


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Saturday, 2003 Aug. 23

Fires pushes 20,000 from homes in Kelowna suburbs

Tiffany Crawford and Carol Harrington
Canadian Press

KELOWNA, B.C. -- Police with bullhorns ordered a staggering 20,000 people to leave their homes in the southern suburbs of this Okanagan city Friday night as fast-moving flames moved ever closer.

It brought the total number of evacuees driven out by the Okanagan Mountain Park fire to 30,000, said statement issued late Friday by the regional district.

... ... ...

Full stroy:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fi...BA-CE8C1E135F21


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Saturday, 2003 Aug. 23

B.C. battles `terrible force' of nature
Kelowna residents flee Okanagan Mountain blaze
Thousands put on evacuation alert as wildfires rage

Daniel Girard
WESTERN CANADA BUREAU

VANCOUVER—His van packed and the cat and dog at the ready, Ron Dyck is just one wind shift away from being forced out of his home by the forest fire raging nearby.

One of about 1,000 residents in the community of Naramata on a one-hour alert to get out, Dyck and his neighbours have so far escaped the Okanagan Mountain fire that has forced a massive evacuation of homes on the southern outskirts of Kelowna.

"People have a sense that we're lucky to have avoided this," Dyck, 59, said in an interview yesterday from his home in the village, about 15 kilometres south of the fire.

"We know that rain is the only thing that's going to put this thing out. It's just so huge."

... ... ...

Full story:
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/Conte...ol=968793972154


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Saturday, 2003 Aug. 22


Can't stop Mother Nature, Premier says Gordon Campbell awestruck by destructive power of B.C. forest fires after aerial tour

KELOWNA, B.C. (CP) - B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell couldn't find the words to describe the destructive power of fires that have so far devoured an area a third of the size of Prince Edward Island in his province.

"I continue to be struck by the size, the magnitude, the scale and I can't find the words to describe it," he said after an aerial tour of major fires ravaging the southern B.C. interior on Friday.

"The smoke just goes on and on. And just the scale, I wish I could describe it to people."

... ... ...

Full story:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fi...6B-37CA7810A449

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[RotorPilot]

Saturday, 2003 August 23

B.C. forest fire claims 200 homes
26,000 residents already forced out in Okanagan area
Thousands more on alert to flee advancing flames

Daniel Girard
WESTERN CANADA BUREAU

VANCOUVER—Sue Daley awoke at a friend's house in Kelowna yesterday to blue skies, calm breezes and neighbours jogging — sights and sounds of a typical British Columbia summer day.

… … …

Full story:
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/Conte...ol=968793972154

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Saturday, 2003 August 23

Upward of 203 homes lost as wildfire tears through Kelowna suburbs

Carol Harrington

Canadian Press

KELOWNA, B.C. (CP) - An estimated 203 homes have been torched as a relentless wildfire advanced into the southern suburbs of this Okanagan city. "Last night was probably the roughest night in Kelowna firefighting history I would say," city fire chief Gerry Zimmerman told a media briefing Saturday. "We got hammered pretty good."
"These losses are staggering," but Zimmerman stressed that the number of homes lost was only preliminary and that the tally is likely to change.
The chief said an aerial survey was being conducted Saturday and that photographs would be posted so that anxious homeowners can determine if their houses had survived the inferno.

… … …

Full story:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fi...18-873F1717A4C3


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Saturday, 2003 August 23

20,000 flee Kelowna homes
Out-of-control fire threatens suburbs

William Boei; with files from Matthew Ramsey, Jeff Lee, Amy O'Brian, Peter O'Neil and Doug Alexander

Vancouver Sun

At least 20,000 Kelowna residents were forced to flee from their homes Friday night as a wind-driven forest fire flared further out of control and threatened to engulf the southern suburbs of the Okanagan's largest city.

While Kelowna was B.C. worst hot spot, strong winds from the southwest were gusting everywhere from the Fraser Canyon through the Kamloops region and the Okanagan, fanning the flames on the north edges of most fires. The provincial forest service was braced for the most critical night of the fire season.

… … …

Full story:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fi...EE-08565DA6E1AB
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Saturday, 2003 August 23

Upscale houses burn: 'There is nothing left'

Amy O'Brian

Vancouver Sun

KELOWNA -- In a flash of flames, smoke and explosions, they were gone.
Fifteen high-priced, recently built homes on the southern edge of Kelowna's city boundaries were engulfed by the rapidly moving Okanagan Mountain Park fire Thursday night, leaving a ghostly scene of devastation.
By Friday afternoon, the hillside where the homes stood less than 24 hours earlier was a barren wasteland littered with flaming hot-spots, deep banks of smoking ash and the skeletal remains of chimneys and concrete foundations. The fire left the houses in its wake as it moved steadily Friday toward more densely populated areas of the city.

"They are totally destroyed," Kelowna Fire Chief Gerry Zimmerman said of the homes. "There is no in-between. There is nothing left."

… … …

Full story:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fi...0C-2DD53F056085

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[204B Driver]

B) Rotor Pilot
I am just waiting till they make me move out of my house. I can see the fire but it is still a long way from where I live, they keep putting alert area closer and closer. I would love to be out there slinging water at this two head monster.
204B Driver

 

[Big Duke 6]

Hey bubba hope all is well on the back 40. Had two of our engineers forced to evacuate as well. Our thoughts are with all of you.

 

[N1]

Hope everything is working out for you guys in the Okanagan, the images of the fires that I have seen are horrendous.

Who flew Jean Chretien around the scene? I can't imagine he flew in a military EH-101, or did he?

Hope they get everything under control there soon.

 

[Heli]

Who flew Jean Chretien around the scene? I can't imagine he flew in a military EH-101, or did he?

Looks more like a Griffin, from the photos

Sure hope the guys from Alpine Helicopters are all well, talk about local ops

 

[RotorPilot]

Monday, 2003 August 25 - Page A1

'Get out! Get out now!'
The Okanagan Valley resembles a war zone with charred forests, licking flames and tired firefighters.

By Mark Hume


OKANAGAN VALLEY -- On a weekend that made some wonder if the end of the world were coming, when a series of forest fires raced out of control from one end of the Okanagan Valley to another and lightning crashed above Kelowna's burning suburbs, there was heroism and fear everywhere.

Racing along the ragged edge of three fires that were burning from Okanagan Falls to Kelowna, and crossing behind the lines into what fire crews are calling the war zone, a 32-hour tour presented a jumble of startling images.

Outside Okanagan Falls, where a fire roared up from the shores of Vaseux Lake, storming a cliff 50 metres high within seconds, an RCMP officer sped along a country road, shouting frantically from her patrol car at people: "Get out! Get out now!"

Full story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Art...ront/TopStories
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Monday, 2003 August 25 - Page A1

Stalked by an inferno

By Paul Sullivan

British Columbia is burning.

It's the worst fire season in 50 years. So says the Premier, who declared a state of emergency Aug. 2, and it only gets hotter.
The numbers are staggering. There are 825 fires burning in the province right now, more than 600 of them in the Kamloops/Kelowna area. Thousands of hectares have burned, and hundreds of homes have been razed. Thousands of people on the southeast edge of Kelowna have been evacuated. The 10,000-hectare Okanagan Mountain Park has been consumed. It has cost a record $170-million to fight this season's fires, and this season is far from over. As this is written, there are a few sprinkles of rain in the forecast, but also thundershowers and the threat of lightning. But the forecast also calls for more sunny, hot, dry weather, at least until Labour Day.

Full story:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/Articl...National/Canada
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Monday, 2003 August 25 - Page A1

Kelowna counts the cost

Raging forest fires destroy hundreds of homes, leave others unscathed as 3,000 allowed to return - for now

By Jane Armstrong

KELOWNA, B.C. -- For the lucky ones, there was relief such as they've never felt. But hundreds of others left a Kelowna church grim-faced and in tears, clutching maps that delivered final proof that their homes had been destroyed by a forest fire.
City officials summoned more than 600 people to a downtown United Church yesterday afternoon, two days after a forest fire raced though this Okanagan city, razing 244 houses and driving more than 20,000 people from their homes.
Yesterday, calm winds and lower temperatures gave firefighters some leeway as they battled the blaze, which now covers nearly 190 square kilometres. No new damage has been reported since Friday's night's unprecedented destruction.

Full story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Art...ront/TopStories
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Monday, 2003 August 25 - Page A4

Tony homes incinerated by voracious Kelowna fire

Only way officials could tabulate damage was to count neighbourhood's driveways

By Jane Armstrong

KELOWNA, B.C. -- In the smoking rubble of a once-grand Kelowna neighbourhood is the storyline of a forest fire that raced up a wooded hillside and tore into a subdivision.
It danced across lawns and swerved from one side of the street to the other, devouring some homes, sparing others.
On winding Westridge Drive, the half-million-dollar houses that line the east side of the street are intact. Across the road, a string of houses are gone, incinerated by a firestorm that roared through Kelowna's southern hills Friday night, destroying 244 homes.

Fire officials had to count driveways Saturday morning to tabulate the damage.

Full story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Art...National/Canada

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Monday, 2003 August 25 - Page A6

Chrétien visits fire site, lauds efforts 'of the people'
Prime Minister promises aid for residents hit by weekend of devastating wildfires

By Mark Hume

KELOWNA, B.C. -- After flying in a military helicopter over the suburbs where 244 homes were destroyed by a forest fire over the weekend, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien promised disaster relief and praised people for their courage.

"I'm amazed by the spirit of the people," Mr. Chrétien said after touring a temporary housing centre and a firehall.

He said the scenes of devastation along Kelowna's southeastern edge startled him.
"It's so big," he said of the Okanagan Mountain fire, which burned its way into Kelowna's subdivisions after consuming nearly 20,000 hectares of forest. "And it's so unpredictable". We flew over areas where two dozen houses were destroyed and two or three stood up and they were a few hundred feet away.
"The forest has been gone. Everything. It must have been a terrible thing."

Full story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Art...National/Canada

More:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fi...10-E0DBC7E15CCE

More:
http://www.canada.com/national/features/fires/
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Monday, 2003 August 25

Evacuees' despair turns into anger

Brian Hutchinson

National Post

KELOWNA, B.C. - This is either the aftermath, or the calm before another terrifying firestorm. The uncertainty has pushed this city's inhabitants, one-quarter of whom are now evacuees, to the brink of nervous breakdown.
Fires still burn around Kelowna. They are persistent blazes, fuelled by tonnes of felled timber, dead grass and towering Ponderosa pines that combust like dried twigs soaked in gasoline.

Flames lick the high ridges behind the city, to the east, north, and south, and continue to creep around the scene of Friday's mass destruction, near the affluent south Kelowna suburb of Mission, where about 245 homes were obliterated. Incinerated.

Full story:
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.htm...F3-46A5A8986ACE
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Fire-ravaged B.C. to get aid
Governments will 'help the people,' Chrétien promises
Thousands allowed to return home as firefighters make gains

Daniel Girard
Western Canada Bureau

KELOWNA, B.C.—Prime Minister Jean Chrétien offered weary residents moral support — and federal dollars to rebuild — after flying over the fire-ravaged Okanagan Valley.
"We will find the money," Chrétien said after a helicopter flight over parts of the massive Okanagan Mountain Park fire, which has destroyed more than 240 homes here.
"When we have a disaster we don't say: 'We don't have the money,'" he said, likening it to the Saguenay or Winnipeg floods or the ice storm that hit Quebec and eastern Ontario. "We have to face that reality."

Full story:
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/Conte...id=970599119419

 

[RotorPilot]

2003 August 25 13:40:30

Calm day gives Kelowna firefighters a break

By Allison Dunfield
Globe and Mail Update

Firefighters are getting another break Monday in the Kelowna-area blaze — the second day in a row marked by cooler temperatures and lighter winds.
The calm skies decreased the danger enough Sunday night to allow 3,600 people on evacuation orders to return to their homes, Carol Suhan, an information officer with the emergency operations centre in Kelowna, told globeandmail.com.
"We've now had two whole nights of calm winds and cool temperatures. It really has been [helpful] at keeping the fire down and at bay," she said. "[However] we still have about 20,000 on [evacuation] order and 26,000 on alert," Ms. Suhan said.

Some facts about wildfires raging across the B.C. Interior as of Sunday:

Number of fires: 834; 658 caused by lightning, 176 by people.

Largest fire: Chilko Lake, 290 square kilometres, 100 per cent contained.

Most threatening: Okanagan Mountain Park, 196 square kilometres, between Kelowna and Naramata; McLure-Barriere fire, 260 square kilometres, north of Kamloops; McGillvray fire, 83 square kilometres, west of Chase.

Area burned: About 1,780 square kilometres since April 1.

Evacuees: About 23,000, most from Kelowna area.

Firefighters: About 3,200, including 400 from other provinces (varying due to reassignments) and 1,150 military personnel.

Cost of battle: $169.4-million total to date, about $6 million a day.

Fires elsewhere in Canada

ALBERTA

Current fires: 13, one out of control, though fire crews expect to have it under control by Sunday night.

Largest fire: Lost Creek. Now under control after 31 days, 211 square kilometres.

SASKATCHEWAN

Current fires: 16, 585 fires so far this year, down significantly from last year's 864.

MANITOBA:

Current fires: 76, three out of control.

Largest fire: Near Split Lake. Estimated at 450 square kilometres. Split Lake one-hour evacuation alert lifted Saturday.

ONTARIO

Current fires: 37, three out of control. About 190 firefighters in B.C. fighting fires. Another 77 to arrive on Monday, 45 more on Tuesday.

Full story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...Story/National/

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2003 August 25 13:40:30

Kelowna waits as fire battle continues

KELOWNA, B.C. - While thousands more people are returning to their homes in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, officials continue to warn the fires are not fully under control.

Almost 3,600 people returned to their homes on Sunday night and Monday morning. Earlier, about 3,000 people were allowed back.

Full story:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/08/25/bcfire030825

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