{"id":855763,"date":"2026-08-12T20:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/855763\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T20:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:52:08","slug":"update-bald-range-wildfire-grows-now-18450-hectares-in-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/855763\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Bald Range wildfire grows, now 18,450 hectares in size"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Bald Range wildfire grows, now 18,450 hectares in size<\/p>\n

Published 9:55 am Wednesday, August 12, 2026<\/p>\n

\n By Jordy Cunningham\/Kelowna Capital News\n <\/p>\n

UPDATE: 9:50 a.m.<\/p>\n

The Bald Range wildfire experienced growth overnight, according to an update from the BC Wildfire Service.<\/p>\n

The blaze is now estimated at 18,450 hectares in size, over 600 hectares larger than it was listed at on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n

Eighteen evacuation orders and alerts remain in place due to the fire. <\/p>\n

Original<\/p>\n

A change in the weather is expected to increase fire activity at the Bald Range wildfire in Summerland, according to BC Wildfire Service (BCWS).<\/p>\n

In its latest update, which came just after 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11, BCWS said windy conditions are expected at the north end of the fire while there\u2019s a chance of a thunderstorm on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cConvective instability associated with thunderstorms could produce downdrafts and erratic winds, potentially increasing fire behaviour; however, this is not guaranteed,\u201d said BCWS.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday morning, all current evacuation orders and alerts remain in place. In an update from officials on Tuesday night, evacuated residents were reminded that patience is needed before they are able to return home.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, fire crews on scene built a guard along the southern flank of the fire around Mt. Conkle, working from east to west. At this time, the fire remains on the west side of Mt. Conkle and west of the ecological reserve. The blaze is currently holding there due to suppression efforts.<\/p>\n

Backup control lines that tie into the Trout Creek drainage in case the fire sees increased activity and can\u2019t be held by the guard have also been established.<\/p>\n

According to BCWS, Thirsk Lake remains far away from the fire; however, the road access has been impacted.<\/p>\n

At the northern flank, heavy equipment has been working from east to west on control lines into the Garnet Lake reservoir. Crews and heavy equipment are also working on establishing control lines from Meadow Valley Road to the west.<\/p>\n

On scene, there is currently an incident command team, 193 fire personnel, 147 structure protection personnel, 29 pieces of heavy equipment, and 14 helicopters providing 24-hour coverage of the blaze.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, the Bald Range blaze is listed at 17,802 hectares and out of control. It is one of four wildfires of note in the province and one of 104 active wildfires.<\/p>\n

Black Press Media will stay up to date throughout the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Bald Range wildfire grows, now 18,450 hectares in size Published 9:55 am Wednesday, August 12, 2026 By…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674,6090],"class_list":["post-855763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855763","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=855763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}