2023 wildfire could have played role in Westside Road landslide

A landslide struck on Tuesday night, in the same area affected by the McDougall Creek wildfire in 2023.

Two years after a wildfire swept through Westside Road, the charred landscape has given way to a new disaster.

A landslide struck Tuesday night, in the same area affected by the McDougall Creek wildfire in 2023.

Engineering geologist Timothy Smith explains when a wildfire burns through a slope, it can create water-repellent soils, making it difficult for the ground to absorb rainwater. This significantly increases the risk of landslides.

“If the ground is burned to a moderate or high severity, you lose all the vegetated ground cover, which, if runoff develops, has nothing to slow it down,” Smith said.

Smith compares the situation to rain falling on a parking lot.

“It flows very quickly, getting to streams much faster than usual,” he said “It also picks up ash and burned sediment, which instead of becoming water, it makes it more viscous and it becomes very thick.”

West Kelowna and Peachland Conservative MLA Macklin McCall says he flagged the landslide risk along Westside Road as a priority to the province earlier.

“There could have been more proactive work happening, like land rehabilitation, erosion control, replanting, after the fire which would have curbed the risk,” McCall said.