Kelowna evacuation orders downgraded to alerts, closure of Knox Mountain Park

A wildfire on Knox Mountain in Kelowna spurred the evacuation of more than 400 properties as emergency crews worked to snuff out the blaze near Okanagan Lake on Saturday.

Jodie Foster, a public information officer with the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre, said two evacuation orders came down for the Magic Estates and Poplar Point areas of Kelowna covering a total of 448 properties due to a wildfire.

Cpl. Judith Bertrand with the Kelowna RCMP said the cause of the fire is unknown as the situation in Knox Mountain Park was still unfolding in the afternoon.

“The Magic Estates area is quite a dense residential area,” Bertrand said in an interview. “In addition to that, the park is visited by a lot of people that are celebrating Canada Day, visiting, hiking, so we need to make sure that these people are safe.”

Bertrand said police assisted fire crews with the evacuation to ensure public safety and that winds made the direction of the fire hard to predict.