Glen Burgess, incident commander for the Okanagan Complex of wildfires, says he can understand why people were nervous watching a new big plume of smoke rise from the Mount Eneas fire today.

But it was all part of a plan, he explained to a group of media this afternoon. BC Wildfire intentionally increased the size of the Mount Eneas fire, forcing it to join with the nearby Munro Forest Service Road Wildfire wildfire.

91裸聊视频淭he plume of smoke can be unnerving,91裸聊视频� said Burgess, explaining that it was a choice between doing it themselves, under their own terms, or waiting for it to happen uncontrollably when an inevitable wind blew the fire up.

91裸聊视频淭he objective was to remove that fuel at our time when the weather was co-operating,91裸聊视频� said Burgess.

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Crews used helicopters to drop ping pong size balls 91裸聊视频� plastic spherical devices, Burgess called them 91裸聊视频� loaded with a small amount of chemicals that would ignite, causing new fires.

Prior to the drop, aerial tankers laid out lines of retardant to contain the fire.

91裸聊视频淭he plan was to remove the fuel between two fires,91裸聊视频� Burgess said. He explained that ground crews could have done the work, but that would have put lives at risk unnecessarily.

91裸聊视频淭hings have gone well and we didn91裸聊视频檛 have anything go unexpectedly,91裸聊视频� said Burgess.

91裸聊视频淥ne of the reasons we wanted to do this today, is we haven91裸聊视频檛 moved into the hotter dryer weather that was predicted.91裸聊视频�

The burn added about 150 hectares to the fire.

91裸聊视频淭he growth we saw today was a planned event,91裸聊视频� said Burgess. 91裸聊视频淲e will be in a much better position. The fire will be behind containment lines where we can work on it.

The good news, Burgess explained, is that winds aren91裸聊视频檛 expected to accompany the warming weather.

91裸聊视频淎t this point, our weather people are telling us we won91裸聊视频檛 be seeing the winds we saw a few days ago,91裸聊视频� he said.

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The Mt. Eneas wildfire is still considered out of control and the Central Okanagan Regional District say evacuation alerts will remain in effect overnight for 698 properties in the vicinity of the 1,400-hectare Mt. Eneas fire and the 150-hectare Munro Forest Service Road Wildfire.

In the Central Okanagan, the following addresses remain on evacuation alert: 7100 91裸聊视频� 7210 Brent Rd.; 7212 91裸聊视频� 7280 Highway 97 South; Finlay Creek Cabins.

All alerts and orders remain rescinded for the Goode91裸聊视频檚 Creek Wildfire south of Kelowna and the Law Creek Wildfire south of West Kelowna. BC Wildfire says no significant growth had occurred on either of these fires by mid-Sunday afternoon.

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