August 29 to September 4, 2010

August 29 to September 4, 2009


Sunday ; The Tweddle Creek fire has now spread almost all the way to Keremeos. It started 4½ weeks ago about 9 km. west of Keremeos, and has slowly spread east almost all the way to the village. Fortunately it has mostly burned high up on the mountain ridges, and has burned down slope towards the river valley in only a few spots. The Village of Keremeos isn’t in any danger … but it sure is smoky in town !

Monday ; It rained quite a bit late last night. We were hopeful that it might extinguish the Tweddle Creek fire. This morning when I went outside and looked up on the mountain … not only was the fire still burning …. but now there was … < sputter > … snow on top of the mountain ! ! !

Tuesday ; It rained all day today. Can the fire still be burning ?

Wednesday ; It rained for most of today. When the rain stopped and the sky cleared in late afternoon … WOO-HOO … after burning for five weeks the fire was out ! ! !

Thursday ; Well … I guess I stand corrected ! ! ! Obviously, where there’s smoke, there’s fire ! And today there were a few spots on the mountain where wisps of smoke were rising. This afternoon a spotter helicopter showed up, followed a few minutes later by a small “bird dog” plane right in front of a tanker plane. Guided by the bird dog, the tanker dropped fire retardant on the mountain in three places. YIKES … watching them work makes me cringe ! They left, headed northeast, then returned in about an hour to dump three more times. I guess the tank holds enough retardant for three dumps, or there are three tanks, then they have to return to Penticton Airport to be refilled.

Friday ; We were expecting tomorrow to be our last day of trailer delivery work, but this morning Marty from RV Days phoned to advise us that due to cancellations he didn’t have any work for us tomorrow. DARN ! We are $15 short of my trailer delivery annual earnings target.

Saturday ; Well … doggone it … there are still a few tiny spots on the mountain puffing up wisps of smoke ! ! !

DSK