Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
PENTICTON — RCMP in British Columbia say they are investigating a possible death in the explosive wildfire near Summerland in the Okanagan that has triggered a provincial state of emergency and forced thousands of people to evacuate.
Firefighting helicopters were diverted to pluck dozens to safety from the blaze that Premier David Eby said on Saturday was “like a bomb” going off as it roared east toward Summerland and Peachland on the shores of Okanagan Lake.
Read more:
- Used Hercules military transports to be sold, turned into waterbombers
- Police in B.C. launch wildfires arson investigations in Interior and Metro Vancouver
- Wildfire destruction mounts in B.C. Interior, structures lost on 120 more properties
More than 20,000 people were ordered to flee, and evacuation alerts extended to the northern edge of Penticton, where many evacuees were sent.
Summerland resident Anette Boulet said Saturday at the Penticton evacuation centre that the fire “looked like doomsday” as it bore down.
She fled before dawn with her husband, son, mother-in-law and five dogs, and did not know if the home that they moved into four months ago was still standing.
“We were just in our house and seeing big black ashes coming down, and we stayed in our house as long as we could — until we saw the ridge of fire,” she said.
RCMP said in a statement that the evacuations were challenging in areas cut off by the flames, and a resident of Meadow Valley, west of Summerland, reported the possible death.
“Hazardous conditions are present in the region and police, along with the BC Coroners Service, are investigating to confirm,” the statement said.
“Officers are working closely with the impacted family.”
Eby said that the Bald Range fire destroyed homes, and although officials have not tallied the destruction, the flame front overwhelmed the community of Faulder, consisting of several dozen houses and rural properties.
A perimeter map put out by the BC Wildfire Service on Saturday suggested the fire rolled over numerous homes right to the waterline north of Summerland, and social media videos showed multiple homes ablaze as residents fled, with fire on both sides of the road.
The fire that erupted at 5:30 p.m. Friday grew to more than 100 square kilometres as it sped 15 kilometres east toward Okanagan Lake in a matter of hours, where it was blazing on the northern and western fringes of Summerland, population 12,000.
At the Penticton evacuation centre, about 20 kilometres south of Summerland, the parking lot was filled with vehicles, some covered in ash. Three goats roamed outside, watched by their owner, as other evacuees carried cats or dogs.
Support staff handed out bottled water and snacks, while food trucks offered free meals.
Greg Krauter, who was forced to evacuate his Summerland property with his seven goats in the middle of the night due to the Bald Range wildfire, walks with three of them outside an evacuee centre, in Penticton, B.C., on Saturday. The Bald Range wildfire in British Columbia’s south Okanagan region has forced 20,000 people out of their homes in the Peachland and Summerland areas. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
Within a few hours of being detected at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, the fire had exploded to measure 50 square kilometres before swiftly doubling in size again as it closed the 15-kilometre distance from its point of ignition to Summerland.
Cliff Chapman, the director of wildfire operations with the BC Wildfire Service, said in a briefing Saturday that the fire was a “nightmare” and one of the most challenging the service had ever faced.
About 10,000 homes are now under evacuation orders in Summerland, Peachland, the regional districts of Okanagan-Similkameen and Central Okanagan, and the Penticton Indian Band lands.
More than 3,200 homes are under evacuation alerts that stretch north past Peachland to Highway 97C, and south past Penticton on its western outskirts.
Authorities said firefighting helicopters were diverted to rescue more than 50 residents trapped by the flames.
Summerland resident Anette Boulet said Saturday at the Penticton evacuation centre that the fire “looked like doomsday” as it bore down.
She said she and her family escaped around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, their house shrouded in smoke.
“You couldn’t see barely. It was, it was just dark, and the ridge, the ridge of fire just coming towards you,” she said, her voice quaking.
“There’s no words to express it. The fear.”
Flames from the Bald Range wildfire west of Summerland, B.C. light up the Okanagan sky. (Tracy Sherlock/Submitted)
Kriss Campbell said she helped evacuate animals from a friend’s pig sanctuary in Summerland, and the fire stopped just metres from their house.
She said that as they loaded some of the animals, they watched from Garnet Valley Road as the fire crested a mountain range, red flames shooting up.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said from Penticton. “I’ve been through a lot in my life, and it was scary.”
Summerland was ordered entirely evacuated just after midnight on Saturday morning. More than 8,000 residents around Peachland to the north were also ordered to leave, as well as residents of more than 400 properties in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen.
Eby told a briefing that it represented “a remarkable escalation in fire activity.”
“The category five and six fires, the terminology they use, but it basically means that the fire goes across the top of the trees,” Eby explained during a briefing on the wildfire on Saturday.
The fire created its own weather system with lightning, he said.
Eby said some people became trapped by the fire and search-and-rescue efforts continued Saturday behind the fire lines for anyone else who may have been caught, while Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said 18 firefighting aircraft rescued more than 50 people.
Cliff Chapman, the director of wildfire operations with the BC Wildfire Service, paid tribute to the co-ordinated effort to get people out.
“I am certain that the outcome of this event would have been significantly worse had we not worked together, multi-jurisdictionally across this fire, everybody stepping up to save people’s lives in Summerland.”
The Bald Range wildfire west of Summerland, B.C., is shown in this Friday handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — B.C. Wildfire Service)
The Summerland fire is one of several wildfires that have threatened communities and destroyed homes in the province this summer.
About 350 buildings, most of them homes, have been destroyed in fires in the Cariboo and Okanagan regions.
Late Saturday, a new evacuation order was issued by the Cariboo Regional District Emergency Operations Centre for the Palmer Creek Fire Area, covering 31 parcels of land or roughly 47 square kilometres.
The district also issued an alert, along with the Tŝideldel First Nation and the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, for an area encompassing the order.
Of the more than 100 wildfires burning in B.C., almost half of them, including the Palmer Creek Fire, are considered out of control, having been fuelled by hot and windy weather and long-standing drought conditions.
The wildfire service said the cause of the Bald Range fire was under investigation.
“I know many families are facing an unimaginable day today. People have lost their homes. And many people have been displaced,” Eby said during the briefing. “Others are waiting for news about loved ones.”
A statement from Eby’s office said reports of “significant structure loss” had been confirmed.
“Given this is an active fire zone, we will have to wait to provide any assessments later. That likely will come from local government officials,” the statement said.
Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said the state of emergency would give the province the tools it needed to be ready for the escalating wildfire situation.
She said there were no travel restrictions in place, but they were asking people to avoid travelling to the Summerland area.
Highway 97 along the lake was closed from Peachland in the north to Penticton in the south. Roads were jammed with evacuees after the evacuation orders came down.
Chapman said fire conditions in the southern part of the province were “explosive” and more wildfires similar to the one that forced the evacuation of Summerland could spring up.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on social media that the federal government stood ready to help and support British Columbia in the fight against the fires.
Carney mentioned the thousands of people evacuated from their homes in Summerland and thanked the firefighters and first responders for “working tirelessly to keep people safe.”
“I’m keeping everyone forced from their homes in my thoughts and hoping they can return safely soon.”
Summerland homeowner Kerry Gold and her husband, Mike Elsinga, said in an interview before they fled around 12:30 a.m. Saturday that they could see flames licking the skies beyond the mountains.
“It’s scary. It’s moving fast,” Gold said.
Elsinga said the fire was heralded around 7 p.m. by a “massive plume” of smoke. Then Gold said there was “nothing but flames in the near distance.”
The couple just moved from Vancouver into their newly restored heritage home in Summerland.
“This is crazy,” Gold said. “I’ve never seen anything like it because I went from being in the city to suddenly being in the Okanagan and discovering what this means.”
— with files from Brieanna Charlebois
Read more:
- Used Hercules military transports to be sold, turned into waterbombers
- Police in B.C. launch wildfires arson investigations in Interior and Metro Vancouver
- Wildfire destruction mounts in B.C. Interior, structures lost on 120 more properties
