A quick moving fire which broke out mid-afternoon on Tk’emlups territory on Monday threatened to engulf a large swath of the northern slopes of the South Thompson Valley before air superiority would win the day in a battle between itself and the BC Wildfire Service.

The fire first sprung to life along Harper Ranch-Pinantan Road sometime around 3pm on Monday afternoon.

Initial indications by the BC Wildfire Service was that the fire started to the west of Harper Ranch Road, on or near one of the properties to the west which divides the neighbors.

However, a further narrowing of the ignition point by the BC Wildfire Service would put start of the fire to the east side of Harper Ranch road on one of  the other handful of properties surround that intersection with East Shuswap Road.

The blaze first started garnering attention shortly after took hold at around 3pm Monday.

At that point, it would — according to the BC Wildfire Service — jump from spot fire size, which is typically around 0.1 hectares, to an estimated 6 hectares in around an hour.

This would prompt a lot of curiosity from many onlookers in East Kamloops, a number of whom who began gathering in Juniper and areas along the Valleyview corridor to catch a glimpse of the fire and the battle against it.

By the time 5:30pm rolled around, the BC Wildfire Service had begun listing the at 20-hectaresa in size, and was still listing it a it as out of control.

However, those who follow the exploits of the BC Wildfire Service would — at that time — begin spotting smaller helicopters taking over the air-assault from the fixed-wing bombers.

This then led the Wildfire Service to declare the Harper Ranch Road wildfire as “being held” in its update just after 6pm.

No word at this point what may have set the fire off to begin with.

Also not clear if any homes or other portions of the properties around the ignition point suffered damage or worse.