(Image Credit: Contributed by Scott Tordoff)

By Dylana Milobar

LIGHTNING STORM

Multiple fire starts brought to Kamloops area by lightning storm now extinguished

Sep 8, 2019 | 1:09 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Fire Rescue dealt with a number of calls yesterday (Sept. 7), after a lightning storm made its way through the area.

Reports of lightning strikes around town began flowing in shortly after 6:30 p.m last night, with multiple photos and videos shared on social media.

Platoon Captain Jim Gorman says of the several strikes, there was only one larger grass fire where KFR was needed.

“We responded to multiple reports of lightning strikes and grass fires throughout town. The only one we actually had to action was up in Lac du Bois area where we had two bush trucks, and a water tender, and the assistance of forestry,” Gorman explains,”It took us about an hour to an hour and a half to extinguish that one, and the rest of them were put out naturally by the rain.”

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Fire started near Lac du Bois (Image Credit: Morgan Waterhouse)

Upon seeing the storm roll in, Gorman says they figured they’d get a few calls for lightning strikes.

“We weren’t expecting the call volume and the number of calls that we were going to get,” He says, “So there was a little higher call volume and more lightning strikes than we anticipated.”

Fire started by lightning above Shuswap Road (Image Credit: Kris Dawson)

Given how wet the area is as of this morning, Gorman says firefighters are not too worried about any flare ups from last night.