2023 wildfire could have played role in Westside Road landslide – Okanagan

Two years after a wildfire swept by means of Westside Road, the charred panorama has given method to a brand new catastrophe.

A landslide struck Tuesday night time, in the identical space affected by the McDougall Creek wildfire in 2023.

Engineering geologist Timothy Smith explains when a wildfire burns by means of a slope, it might create water-repellent soils, making it tough for the bottom to soak up rainwater. This considerably will increase the danger of landslides.

“If the bottom is burned to a average or excessive severity, you lose all of the vegetated floor cowl, which, if runoff develops, has nothing to sluggish it down,” Smith mentioned.

1:45Mudslide closes Westside Street in each instructions

Smith compares the scenario to rain falling on a car parking zone.

“It flows in a short time, attending to streams a lot quicker than typical,” he mentioned “It additionally picks up ash and burned sediment, which as a substitute of turning into water, it makes it extra viscous and it turns into very thick.”

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West Kelowna and Peachland Conservative MLA Macklin McCall says he flagged the landslide threat alongside Westside Street as a precedence to the province earlier.

“There may have been extra proactive work taking place, like land rehabilitation, erosion management, replanting, after the fireplace which might have curbed the danger,” McCall mentioned.

McCall stresses the significance of treating landslide mitigation with the identical urgency as wildfire prevention.

“We take numerous time to reply to wildfires and work laborious at that, however the specter of landslides has elevated due to the fireplace, so I do assume extra consideration must be given to this.”

The Ministry of Transportation and Transit advised International Information particles removing is underway. As soon as accomplished, employees will be capable of higher estimate the period of the street closure.

At present, Westside Street stays closed in each instructions between Important Road and Denison Street, and there’s no info on the situation of the street beneath.

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