The wildfire-induced haze that's hung over much of Oliver and region since the origin of the Nk'Mip wildfire Monday afternoon cleared temporarily Friday, giving locals and tourists alike a chance to breathe some relatively fresh air for a change.
More importantly, it gave firefighters a better look at the latest developments in the now five-day-old blaze.
And by mid-afternoon, the sky above the fire's northern flank was flooded with helicopters attacking hotspots in the hills east and southeast of Oliver.
The hub of the activity was undoubtedly Tuc-El-Nuit Lake, a small body of water ringed by homes and less than a kilometer north of the town centre.
Here, for much of the afternoon, swimmers and news crews and other interested parties set up shop at the lake's Rotary Beach to watch a seemingly never-ending parade of helicopters swoop in, expertly refill their buckets, and head back into battle.
From our vantage point, the apparent afternoon focus was a hotspot on a ridge overlooking the Nk'Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course -- likely the closest the fire has actually come to Oliver.
The flames were presumably fiercer a couple kilometers south, where an enormous, highly active smoke cloud formed a bit later in the afternoon in the rural region to the east of the Area 27 car racing facility.
Was it a prescribed burn? We don't know. We’re not firefighters. But it was big. Really big.
This morning, the thick haze had returned to the region. Osoyoos was particularly hard hit, leaving us with views like those below, where you wouldn't know we were facing east over Osoyoos Lake from Lions Park beach.
But that's not the biggest news of the day. For that, you have to look much farther east -- all the way over to Mt Baldy Ski Resort, which this morning was ordered evacuated. According to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, residents were required to leave the area immediately.
For more information on that order, which would seem to offer additional proof of just how widespread the Nk'Mip fire has become (Mt Baldy is 30-plus kilometers from Oliver) go here.
For our ongoing Nk/Mip wildfire update story, go here.
