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.

sa国际传媒淭he plume of smoke can be unnerving,sa国际传媒� 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.

sa国际传媒淭he objective was to remove that fuel at our time when the weather was co-operating,sa国际传媒� said Burgess.

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Crews used helicopters to drop ping pong size balls sa国际传媒� plastic spherical devices, Burgess called them sa国际传媒� 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.

sa国际传媒淭he plan was to remove the fuel between two fires,sa国际传媒� Burgess said. He explained that ground crews could have done the work, but that would have put lives at risk unnecessarily.

sa国际传媒淭hings have gone well and we didnsa国际传媒檛 have anything go unexpectedly,sa国际传媒� said Burgess.

sa国际传媒淥ne of the reasons we wanted to do this today, is we havensa国际传媒檛 moved into the hotter dryer weather that was predicted.sa国际传媒�

The burn added about 150 hectares to the fire.

sa国际传媒淭he growth we saw today was a planned event,sa国际传媒� said Burgess. sa国际传媒淲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 arensa国际传媒檛 expected to accompany the warming weather.

sa国际传媒淎t this point, our weather people are telling us we wonsa国际传媒檛 be seeing the winds we saw a few days ago,sa国际传媒� 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 sa国际传媒� 7210 Brent Rd.; 7212 sa国际传媒� 7280 Highway 97 South; Finlay Creek Cabins.

All alerts and orders remain rescinded for the Goodesa国际传媒檚 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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