Kelowna, the largest city in the interior of BC is on fire. According to the article, almost a full third of the cities 100,000 population has been evacuated from their homes. While I remember small towns/villages being evacuated and even wiped out from forest fires before, I’ve never heard of it happening to a major city in Canada before.
I was planning on going their next week for a week for a holiday (we do every year) and buy a bunch of wine. I just hope the city and wineries actually survive this next while.
Wow. I went to Kelowna a couple of summers ago. The camping trip was cut short when my friends had a fight, but I loved it up there. And we saw Ogopogo.
I know that naturally-caused fires are necessary for a healthy forest. But I still hate to see them burn.
What I find odd is that I haven’t heard ANYTHING about Kelowna on CNN, not even a quick mention on that annoying news ticker. You’d think that a major city threatened with destruction would at least warrant a 30-second spot. Anyways. I guess I’ll just rely on good ol’ CBC news!
Definitely scary…I haven’t been to the Okanagan in years, but I’ve always enjoyed it there. It’s cloudy in Vancouver today (no rain though), so hopefully the clouds can make it to the Interior and bring some rain to all the fires.
roxx222, I saw a quick mention of it on CNN. The announcer came up with a rather interesting way to pronounce Kelowna, but at least they know it exists.
