Check out these extraordinary scenes of the West Kelowna firefight

Some of the most striking and close up views of the McDougall Creek Wildfire have been captured by BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) video crews.

In a video released this week, labelled ‘On the ground at the McDougall Creek Wildfire’, BCWS personnel discuss the initial challenges they faced and how they dealt with the blaze.

Here’s some edited excerpts from that video, which can be viewed in full and in its original format on YouTube via this link.

The video shows the explosive fire behaviour and rapid growth resulting in numerous evacuation alerts and orders, as well as impacts to communities.

After the initial report of the fire, responding crews were forced to pull back to safe locations in the afternoons leading up to the cold front passage, as pre-existing drought conditions and on-site winds led to aggressive fire behaviour each day.

The footage highlights the exceptional unified effort of all involved to the incident: BC Wildfire Service, West Kelowna Fire Rescue, the Regional District of Central Okanagan and RCMP, with significant support from structural fire departments across the province, BC Hydro and the communities themselves.

In the video, West Kelowna Fire Rescue Chief Jason Brolund, BC Wildfire Service’s Structure Protection Specialist Larry Watkinson, and BC Wildfire Service’s Branch Director Mikhail Elsay describe their experiences with the cold front passage and how our organizations came together to protect public life and safety in response to this wildfire.