'It smells like somebody had a campfire right in the room,' resident says

A grass fire that ignited above a neighbourhood in Kamloops, B.C. is under control after coming within blocks of a subdivison on Thursday.

Flames swept across a hill near the Batchelor Heights area around 6 p.m.

Twelve homes on Grasslands Boulevard were evacuated, but residents have since been allowed to return home.

Edward Adams lives about two blocks from the fire. He didn't need to leave his house, but he said the fire exploded in size faster than he could track it.

 
Adams had his front door open for some fresh air when the smoke came.

"I went into my bedroom and literally, 30 seconds later, my daughter says, 'Dad, do you smell smoke?'" Adams said.

"It smelled like somebody had a campfire right in the room. It just got smoky so fast, so we shut the door and it just got smokier and smokier. About every minute, the smoke doubled."

First responders starting pouring into the neighbourhood.

"All of a sudden the fire trucks started coming — one, two, three, four," Adams said.

"The fire blew from the other side of the hill, crested the hill and came down the hill. It looked like it stopped because there was a bank there and it ran out of stuff to burn," he added.

"If there'd been more stuff to burn I'm sure this whole subdivision would've gone down."

Adams said there are hundreds of homes in the subdivision. He praised the quick response from Kamloops Fire Rescue and the B.C. Wildfire Service. 

"It was very scary. At first, you're just sort of amazed and you're watching ... but it was spooky," he said.

"I'm amazed they were able to stop it — we're very grateful for that."

The wildfire service said the fire was estimated at about 60 hectares in size just before 9:30 p.m. It isn't expected to grow any more, but crews will remain on-scene overnight.