{"id":800702,"date":"2026-07-14T05:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:53:16","slug":"osoyoos-b-c-fire-triggers-evacuation-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800702\/","title":{"rendered":"Osoyoos, B.C. fire triggers evacuation alert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The size of the Brunswick complex of wildfires, has changed little since last week with a combined size of more than 188 square kilometres, after a weekend of rain and cooler weather.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen has issued an evacuation alert for dozens of homes and properties that are being threatened by a fire on Anarchist Mountain east of Osoyoos, B.C.<\/p>\n

The alert says residents on Cougar Court and the Sasquatch Trail should be ready to leave as crews battle a blaze on the mountain.<\/p>\n

The Anarchist Mountain Fire Department says that as of 4 p.m. the fire was being held, but people are being told to avoid the area \u201cto allow emergency personnel to work safely and efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The local firefighters are battling the blaze with the help of the B.C. Wildfire Service and the South Okanagan Task Force, and the cause is under investigation.<\/p>\n

The properties covered by the alert are near the Crowsnest Highway in the Regal Ridge area. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere in B.C., crews fighting out-of-control wildfires near Boston Bar, B.C., were taking advantage of favourable weather to attack the blazes directly, before fire activity was expected to pick up after tempered behaviour<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The size of the Brunswick complex of wildfires, consisting of the Brunswick Creek and Ainslie Creek blazes, has changed little since last week with a combined size of more than 188 square kilometres, after a weekend of rain and cooler weather.<\/p>\n

The B.C. Wildfire Service said in an overnight update that crews would take advantage of the reduced fire activity to directly attack the fires and ensure the Highway 1 corridor through the area remained open.<\/p>\n

Crews were also working to protect structures near Boothroyd while establishing fire lines on the southwest flank of the Ainslie Creek blaze.<\/p>\n

The fires have triggered evacuation orders and alerts for hundreds of properties and destroyed some structures in the Boston Bar area, while Highway 1 was closed last week in the Fraser Canyon community before reopening.<\/p>\n

An evacuation alert covering 61 properties near Merritt remains in effect, issued by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, while the Nooaitch Indian Band had also told residents of its main reserve to get ready to leave on short notice last week.<\/p>\n

Adam Hart, emergency program co-ordinator with the City of Merritt, said there\u2019s still a \u201clarge buffer area\u201d between the city and perimeter of the Ainslie Creek blaze, but officials were monitoring the situation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re keeping an eye on things,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be paying attention if it weren\u2019t a concern, but you know, it\u2019s fire season.\u201d <\/p>\n

An air-quality warning for the region has been lifted, and though there\u2019s a bit of smoky haze, Hart said the city of about 7,000 residents has been \u201cquite fortunate in that the smoke has mostly avoided our community up to this point.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hart said Merritt has activated its emergency operations centre, but it\u2019s a \u201clow-level activation\u201d done out of what he called an \u201cabundance of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

A small number of evacuees have arrived in Merritt, and its airport was being used by helicopters as part of the effort to fight the fires, he said.<\/p>\n

The wildfire service has asked the public to avoid stopping or speeding on Highway 1 near Boston Bar and issued a reminder that operating a drone near a wildfire is prohibited, saying one of the devices had temporarily halted aerial firefighting operations at the Brunswick Creek blaze over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The size of the Brunswick complex of wildfires, has changed little since last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-800702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}