Aggressive fire behaviour and hot, dry conditions have continued to expand the wildfire near Pritchard and residents are being evacuated.

The evacuation order was issued by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District at 9:30 p.m. Friday night and includes all properties east of Duck Range Road and continuing south from 2620 Duck Range Road to include all of the properties lying east and accessed by McKim Forestry Road and the southern end of Schamps Road.

The evacuation alert area has also been expanded for other residents near the Martin Mountain fire.

Due to low relative humidity and easterly winds overnight, fire activity on the western and southern sides of the Pritchard fire has increased the size of the fire to 1,377 hectares.

Today crews will be identifying and constructing fire guards around the perimeter of the fire and will be assisted by helicopter bucketing and heavy machinery. Heavy equipment continued to work overnight to progress bulldozer guards along the northern flank.

A public meeting has been scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m at the Kamloops Towne Lodge ballroom, 1250 Rogers Way. This meeting will be for residents affected by the Pritchard Martin Mountain Fire, the Notch Hill fire (for Turtle Valley area) and the Community Lake Plateau fire.

The safety of firefighting personnel on site remains the first priority as volatile fire behaviour pose significant safety risks for crew members. The most aggressive fire activity seen was to the northwest and northeast corners of the fire.

Over 70 BC Forest Service firefighters are currently on site, along with the fire departments from Pritchard, Cache Creek, Kamloops, Sicamous, Salmon Arm, Logan Lake and Armstrong, who are working to protect homes in the immediate vicinity of the wildfire. Structural Protection Units, which are sprinkler systems from the Office of the Fire Commissioner, are also on route. No structures have been lost at this time.

The priority of suppression efforts is the north flank of the fire closest to the community. Today, ground crews were assisted by heavy helicopters water-bucketing, and air tankers laid multiple rounds of retardant on the north and northwest flanks of the fire. This is to slow the fire’s spread and back up the machine guards created by nine pieces of heavy equipment on site. Crews patrolled private land to the north of the fire and extinguished burning embers from the fire that were landing in grassy areas.