A motor home fire on Highway 3 west of Grand Forks prompted evacuations of nearby homes as the incident morphed into the Crook Lake wildfire.
Around 3 p.m. on Saturday, emergency crews and YRB were called to the section of highway near Danshin Village Road, about six kilometres west of Grand Forks after a westbound motor home caught fire. Shortly after, emergency crews arrived and shut down the highway to deal with the spreading blaze.
Motorists were asked to detour on Danshin Village and Willow roads.
The fire grew and spread so fast that by late afternoon, 20 properties on Willow and Danshin roads were evacuated as the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary Operations Centre was activated to level two the fire grew to two hectares. However, but around 7 p.m. the highway was re-opened for traffic and by 8 p.m., the fire was listed as “being held.”
A news release on Sunday stated fire crews had left on Saturday evening, but would be in the area Sunday for mop-up operations.
As of Monday morning, all evacuations were rescinded by RDKB.