A historic British Columbia landmark, the Nahatlach Lookout Tower, has burned in a wildfire south of Lytton and north of Boston Bar.

Footage from Lytton’s Internet provider, Lyttonnet, shows the iconic tapered wooden tower ablaze in the out-of-control Kookipi Creek Fire, which is an estimated 8,791 hectares in size.

“Sick to my stomach … it was horrifying,” said Matt Ion, communicators director for the Four Wheel Drive Association of British Columbia, of watching the video.

The association’s volunteers maintain and care for the site, which was freshly sanded and painted just last weekend. Ion told Global News he has tended the tower personally.

“There’s still some processing going on, I guess. It’s tough to watch something like that — you really know the place, you’ve spent time there, spent the night there a couple of times.”

According to Recreation Sites and Trails BC, the original Nahatlatch Lookout Tower was built between 1956 and 1958. An observer was stationed there every fire season until the early 1970s, when advances in fire detection made human observation less critical.

It was officially decommissioned as a fire lookout tower in 1993, but quickly became a popular destination for hikers, ATV clubs and geocaching enthusiasts. Ion said it is now visited by many hundreds of people each year.

“We’re already talking about plans to rebuild it once things settle down, and that kind of helps take the edge off,” he said.

While the tower burning is “pretty tragic,” the burning of homes and the evacuation of people and livestock is a much more pressing concern, he added.

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In 2011, the Nahatlatch Lookout structure collapsed from heavy snowfall. The site destroyed Thursday was a reconstructed tower — rebuilt in 2012 with new materials.

Many social media users were also dismayed by its destruction on Thursday, sharing concerns on Twitter.

An unconfirmed number of structures have been razed by wildfires in B.C. in the past 48 hours, particularly in West Kelowna where the McDougall Creek fire has forced thousands to flee their homes.

The Kookipi Creek fire, which burned the Nahatlatch tower, has also prompted evacuation orders from the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, Fraser Valley Regional District and Kanaka Bar Indian Band, as well as a number of alerts.