Two dogs were lost and a cabin destroyed by a fire ignited in the early morning hours in a rural area outside of Lake Country.
The fire started near 2:30 a.m. in the cabin located off Beaver Lake Road near the Clark Creek Bridge.
Lake Country deputy chief Brent Penner said the couple were awoken by the flames and had to scramble to escape the cabin and call 9-1-1.
Penner said a three-person forest firefighting crew responded to the blaze as the cabin is located outside the Lake Country fire protection area.
“I was there to monitor the situation just because we have obvious concerns about the fire getting into the forest and spreading into our fire protection area,” Penner said.
“Fortunately, that didn’t happen as the forest firefighting crew responded very quickly to the scene.”
Penner said the cabin fire was another example of a near-miss that Lake Country has experienced in recent days, mainly with grassfires that have been quickly doused.
“We all see what ‘s going on in the rest of the province, and the lightning strikes that have started many of those fires could very easily have occurred in the Okanagan Valley as further north this time,” Penner said.
“Everyone needs to be diligent and keep the human-caused element out of the equation as much as possible.”
Penner noted the Lake Country Fire Department currently has two paid on-call local firefighters with a fire truck at 108 Mile House, and another four-person crew and truck at 100 Mile House to assist with the forest firefighting efforts.