[Awetopsy]

In my town, Kelowna, We are experiencing one of the largest fires just south of us that we've ever seen in BC.

this pic was taken from across okanagan lake when the fire was only 400 hectares:


these next two were taken a couple nights later, from downtown Kelowna, when the fire had grown to 2300 hectares:



This was taken the next day, again from across the lake:


These next two were taken from a supermarket parking lot near my house, the night after the fire had grown to 2300 hectares:



These two are sunsets from a couple of the evening we've had... the Sun has been an eerie red color for the last few days:



This was the sunrise this morning at 7:00am. The sky was literally grey from smoke and had a big red disk where the sun should be... theis picture doesnt really do it justice:



This is the ash from the fire that fell on my car over night, all the cars in the parking lot are covered like this:


The fire now covers more than 13000 hectares, and is rated a level 6 fire, the highest rating a fire can have. The provincial park that it started in is now gone. Over 40 people have been evacuated from near Kelowna and Penticton and over 1000 are on evacuation alert.

[Ragnarok]

Doesn't look good =/
Keep us informed...
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"Ever forward, my darling wind." -Master Yuppa
Seigetsu

[Impaler]

According to google calculater, 13000 hectares is 32123 acres, or 50 square miles.

That's a big fire.
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QED, sort of.

[Giant Hamster]

Calculater... Zach, I'm tellin' ya: You're playing way too much Metroid.

[kimchi]

All the best, man. I have a bunch of friends and family in BC.

[Impaler]

Holy shit, that is the first spelling error I've ever made here, which really goes to show how overwhelmingly awesome metroid prime is. I suggest that anyone who reads this post go and buy a gamecube, and then buy metroid prime. It is amazing.

If it can bring down my batting average to a lowly 99.9952107% (that's 1 word spelled incorrectly out of 20880), then it really is one of the greatest video games of all time.

But anyways. Wildfires! They sure do suk!
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QED, sort of.

[DJorgensen]

Geezz... those are some unnerving pics for someone living so close.

The fire is so large now that the smoke has blown all the way into Edmonton here, and we now have the creepy reddish sun at night too (but definately not so bad as in Kelowna).

This year is really turning out to be a bad in terms of the forest fires, especially in such beautiful areas.

Good luck Awetopsy. I hope the conditions change for the better very soon.

[[666]Flat]

Reminds me of how much arsonists need to die. No matter if they caused the fire in this particular case.
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[Shadow-X-]

Whoa, that is really crazy that you're so close to it. I just moved here to Vancouver, B.C on Aug. 10th, and it's been on the news daily, telling people to have caution and don't let the elders get outside if they have respiratory probs, etc. I remember, it was about an hour before I landed in Vancouver, people started to stand up and look out the plane, and I was wondering why so I asked the girl sitting next to me, and she told me everyone was looking at the fire. Sure enough, you could see smoke rising like from an active volcano (just not as big, obviously). It was sorta neat-o and scary at the same time. It's tragic that all these people have to get evacuated and disturbed from their daily lives, most probably because of some teenage idiot with matches.
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Just remember, when in doubt, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes.

[Awetopsy]

last night the winds shifted and 15 homes were lost.. the fire crews were scrambling to alert the residents and just barely got them out in time..

[Awetopsy]

tonite 20,000 more people just got evacuation orders in Kelowna.. Officals are fearing that Fires are going to spark up from the thunder storm that is now flashing lightning around the city. People are flooding the streets getting into town from all the evacuated areas.


getting scary now.

[Awetopsy]

well, as a final update, the Fire is almost 27000 hectares, but is 80% contained.

Almost 250 homes were lost.

After nine straight weeks of sun and hot tempuratures, we've finally had a few days of good rain.

It seems as thought the worst is over.

[[Shizo]]

Hehe next thing you know, Awetopsy saying: "Last update. The fire just ate my car. I'd like to get the hell out of here, but i can't, since High Elf of Thorr Mountains is about to drop a lore item that i've been camping for almost a week now."

(for non-geeks, it was a reference to EverQuest MMORPG game)

:0

[Shadow-X-]

Now where's my phoenix down when I need one.... uhh... oie.
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Just remember, when in doubt, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes.