Four fire departments responded to knock down a structure blaze that turned into a two-day event after an early morning flare up. 

On Monday night, June 10, the Malakwa Fire Department responded to a fire at Green Acres Trailer Park on Delaney Road, where one unit was involved. The Sicamous Fire Department was also called in to provide mutual aid, with the Columbia Shuswap Regional District taking charge of the scene for a unified command. 

"The fire department was able to get water on it quickly and prevent it from spreading to the very close residences on either side, and a shed that was at the rear of the building as well," Sean Coubrough, CSRD deputy regional fire chief said, adding that crews did an overhaul of the scene to determine that no fire remained, but were unable to go inside the building because the structural integrity had been compromised.

"When we left, all the heat that we could see with the thermal imagers was out, and we requested the neighbours to keep and eye on it overnight."

Malakwa's deputy chief also followed up around 4 a.m. and found the scene to still be secure. Shortly after, however, a flare up occurred around 4:30 a.m. and very quickly spread. Though it was seen and reported immediately by one of the neighbours on fire watch, there were multiple trailers involved by the time the Malakwa department was able to get back on-scene. At that point, Sicamous, Swansea Point and Ranchero/Deep Creek crews were also called to assist through mutual aid. 

"A total of five trailers were involved, it appears two were unoccupied and there were at least two hoarding houses with an excessive fuel load here as well," Coubrough said while still on scene Tuesday morning, adding that all were destroyed, along with an outbuilding.

"The tight setbacks here in this trailer park made the fire spread incredibly quick, and made the firefighting very difficult."

By late Tuesday morning, the fire was in the mop-up stage, with an excavator on-site to contain the debris and get underneath to all the hot spots to ensure that crews could safely leave the scene. 

"It was a good joint operation by the fire departments involved," said Coubrough. "And emergency support services is assisting the residents that have been displaced."