Numerous calls for a fire above Glenrosa Thursday turned out to be smoke from the Brenda Creek fire

Photo: Contributed

West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund says he would prefer to get a hundred calls for smoke that turns out to be nothing than nobody call for what turns out to be something.

Emergency lines handled numerous calls Thursday night for what was believed to be a new wildfire burning "somewhere above Glenrosa."

Several tips and emails into Castanet proclaimed the same thing after dark, billowing smoke, was seen rising above the hills.

Brolund says investigation of the smoke was turned over to the BC Wildfire Service because it was felt it was a ways out of town and outside the West Kelowna Fire Department's jurisdiction.

While the smoke turned out to be from the still out-of-control Brenda Creek wildfire 40 kilometres from town, Brolund says the public did the right thing, and encouraged them to remain vigilant.

"We are grateful for the public notifying us of smoke that shouldn't be there," said Brolund.

"If it means we have to do these chases, and find out it's outside our area, or strange looking smoke from a different fire, that's fine. We would really hate to discover this morning that we had a growing fire last night, and we weren't able to do anything because nobody told us."

Brolund says he saw the same smoke and had the same concerns.

He also believed it was likely coming from the Brenda Creek fire, but admitted there were times he wasn't sure because it was "kind of coming from a different direction, and it seemed pretty dark."

One piece of advice Brolund wanted to pass along to the public is to try and associate a fire with landmarks, or try and be more specific as to where a fire is.

"Above Glenrosa is a pretty wide area," he says.

"We have great people who work on the end of the line when people call 911 or *5555 to report a wildfire. They are able to ask very specific questions and get to the heart of the matter."

Not for a second, Brolund adds, do we want people thinking they shouldn't bug us, or someone else has reported it.

"We always say, if you see smoke where it shouldn't be, phone us."

There's "no call too small."