Day 2 Kelowna Fires

We are now into day two. At least the smoke has cleared somewhat. We began the day with a full crew meeting to discuss and comeup with a game plan. We have a number of people here on the ground in Kelowna to cover these fires.

We are still working our forestry contacts to gain access into the restricted airspace. But for now we recon-ed all three fires from just outside the NOTAM restrictions.
It was a productive flight. We were able to get the first shots of the Terrace Mountain Fire. This fire is located about 20 miles to the northwest of Kelowna. This fire is not threatening any structures, but has produced most of the troublesome smoke that plagued flight operations yesterday.

This is a shot the Terrace Mountain Fire some 20 miles to the North of Kelowna.

Another shot as taken from my crew window of the Terrace Mountain Fire north of Kelowna. This non interface fire is producing most of the smoke in the Kelowna area and has ground crews observing its behaviour.

We continued to fly around the backside of it and headed to the backside of both Rose Valley and Glenrosa fires. Smoke on the back side was such that it made shooting from this position unfeasible.

This is a look from the east side of Lake Okanagan looking at the Glenrosa fire. This fire is an interface fire and has more than 11,000 people displace due to evacuation orders.

The flight was not a write off. We did return with shots of each fire location that will no doubt find their way to air during the cast this evening.

Hopefully we will have been able to get clearance to enter the fire zone at a reduce altitude and deliver some killer material for the team.