The fire started around 5pm near Brenda Mine Road. It’s unclear how it started, but debris blocked the road until 1am
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Witnesses who were in the line emailed Global News and described the scene as chaos. On Friday night, DriveBC issued a series of tweets about the closure, initially saying the eastbound lanes of Highway 97C were closed due to a vehicle fire. #BCHwy97C – Closed at Brenda Mine Lake Road due to vehicle fire. #MerrittBC — DriveBC (@DriveBC) August 20, 2022 Story continues below ad 7 hours and you couldn’t quickly put out a fire and push a truck to the side of the road or have any plan to let thousands of people know what happens when they don’t have cell coverage. Hmm. — Adrian McTaffish (@damoven) August 20, 2022 But later that night, DriveBC called it a challenging and dangerous vehicle recovery. He asked drivers to use an alternate route and avoid the area. As of Saturday afternoon, one eastbound lane remained closed. DriveBC said the flags will be in place until Monday and that drivers are being asked to slow down to 30 km/h. Global News has contacted AIM Roads and the police for more information. The Peachland Fire Department said it responded to a call for help at 7:45 p.m. and that it sent seven firefighters, one water and one bush to the incident, which was 14 kilometers outside its fire protection area. Story continues below ad
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Meanwhile, one person told Global News it was a frustrating experience, waiting in line for hours. “We got there around 4:45 p.m.,” Paige Ennis said, adding that the semi had become detached from its cargo, with the middle section of its cargo on fire. “At the beginning, from (half a kilometer) away, all we could see were police cars, blocking traffic, and (traffic) started building up very quickly behind us. Ennis continued, saying they expected to see some fire engines quickly, but didn’t see any until three hours later — although they did see some paramedics. Eventually, Ennis said the traffic ended around 12:45 a.m., adding that they were stuck because “there was no way to turn around.” “Traffic continued on the other side for most of the day. So they hadn’t closed that side of the road, but they weren’t opening a lane somehow for us to get there. “Management was very poor.” © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
