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Evacuation orders and alerts have been issued in parts of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley after a cluster of wildfires broke out following a fierce lightning storm that swept across the southern Interior.

B.C. Wildfire Service spokesman Kevin Skrepnek said Thursday that a blaze burning four kilometres south of Peachland on the west side of Okanagan Lake was one of the most serious, but it was not the only active fire.

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“We’ve got a cluster of fires that is of concern right now in the south Okanagan corridor from Kelowna south,” he said in an interview

Multiple fires are burning in or near West Kelowna, Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, Summerland, Naramata and Okanagan Falls.

On Wednesday evening, an evacuation alert was issued by Central Okanagan Emergency Operations for a group of properties threatened by the Good Creek wildfire just south of the City of Kelowna. An evacuation order remains in effect for properties at the south end of Lakeshore Road, including 6006 – 8888 Lakeshore Road.

Additional evacuations were ordered Wednesday overnight, affecting a total of 43 properties, several campgrounds and a provincial park along Highway 97 between Summerland and Peachland.

Photo by Ron Seymour Kelowna Daily Courier / PNG

A second fire, identified by Skrepnek as the Peachland Creek blaze, led to the evacuation of 34 properties early Thursday just north of Summerland, and those residents were urged to register at the reception centre in Penticton.

The blaze north of Summerland forced the closure of Highway 97 for a time on Wednesday, though traffic was slowly moving again by the evening as the RCMP were escorting groups of vehicles in each direction.

The owners of a roadside fruit stand defied an evacuation order to save their business and home from a forest fire.

Photo by Jeff Bassett / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Members of the Marsh family spent a frantic night Wednesday watering their Highway 97 property and dousing small fires ignited by flying embers.