For the second consecutive afternoon, Penticton Indian Band land was home to a wildfire serious enough to elicit responses from both the PIB Fire Department and the Penticton Fire Department.
Saturday's fire was adjacent to Doc's Golf Centre at the northwest corner of the city. Today's, which began in the early afternoon and looked to be approximately a hectare in size, burned on a sparsely vegetated hillside just west of Penticton Regional Airport.
On hand was PIB fire chief Barry Philip, who said the cause has yet to be determined.
"As you can see, it was pretty large for the time of year. The grass is already dry. Judging by the wind, we believe it started at the south end."
According to Philip, firefighters controlled the right and left flanks "and made sure it didn’t go over the hill to the south, because we have Skaha Hills over there."
Philip said the PIB Fire Department received notification of the blaze at 1:50 p.m. and would ultimately send six firefighters to the site to join with the forces of the PFD.
"Luckily," he added as he pointed up the hill, "the fire pretty much stopped when it hit the bottom of the shale (a hard rock face near the summit)."
By 4 p.m., only PIB vehicles and firefighters remained and Philip said the crew was in the process of mopping up.
