On August 17, 2023, when wildfire took hold in McDougall Creek near West Kelowna, exceptionally high winds sent embers flying across the lake to rain down on buildings in the Kelowna area. An amazed homeowner who lives six kilometers away from the fire shared a photo of a two-centimeter, burnt piece of bark in her yard. She was grateful it had not landed on her asphalt roof. By late August of the summer of 2023, wildfires had already burned 150,504 square kilometers or about four percent of the entire forest area ... read more