Tuesday evening was another relatively clear night for watching the fire. On the North end of the fire it is burning very high on the mountain and over the ridge out of our valley view. From a photographers vantage point the evening imagery was less dramatic than previous nights. However this is little comfort for over 2000 residents who now have been issued an evacuation alert in the Mission area of South Kelowna. As of 9 am August 20th the fire is now burning at around 6300 hectares, and is climbing directly above many homes. Winds from the North have pushed the fire South towards the town of Naramata as well. The entire town of Naramata is on evacuation alert. Some radio and cell phone towers on the mountain have been knocked out and the major power line running between Kelowna and Penticton has been shut down in fear of it catching fire.

Afternoon update: Okanagan Mountain fire is now over 11,000 hectares in size. The entire park is only just over 10,000 hectares. 95% of the provincial park has been consumed by flames. The fire now has a level 6 rating, which is the highest rating for a forest fire.

I would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming response from this web page. It started as a basic page to show a couple family members who live out of town what was happening here. Before I knew it I was getting over a thousand hits a day. Your comments have been much appreciated. I will continue to update the page with more photo's daily.