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The mayor of the Summerland, B.C., says the work of recovering from the fire that forced the entire community to evacuate this month is just beginning, despite the blaze being declared held by firefighters.
“During the evacuation, we really pulled together as a community and we helped each other get through it,” Doug Holmes said Friday.
“And we’re going to need that spirit. We’re going to need to work together and remain united to rebuild our community.”
The Bald Range wildfire, declared held on Thursday, had roared toward the Okanagan lakeside community on the night of Aug. 7.
The blaze has been among the most destructive in B.C. this season, destroying or damaging about 150 structures and forcing about 20,000 in Summerland and surrounding communities to evacuate.
One woman died trying to get out, and almost every home in the small community of Faulder west of Summerland was destroyed.
Holmes said Summerland had never seen anything close to the destruction and trauma that the Bald Range fire brought, but preparation had mitigated its impact. Forty homes were damaged or destroyed within the municipal limits.
“I mean, we do all the training and then it really pays off,” he said, noting the emergency operation centre, community staff and firefighters all did their part.
“That’s a testament to all the training that they go through for events like this that you hope never happens. But when it does, you’re prepared, but nothing can totally prepare you for something like this.
“I don’t think anybody really realizes, and every kind of crisis like this is a little bit different than from others.”
The province declared a state of emergency on Aug. 8 as the fire loomed over Summerland, but it was lifted on Thursday on the advice of emergency officials.
The BC Wildfire Service said in an update late Thursday that the Bald Range fire was expected to remain within its current perimeter of about 252 square kilometres west of Summerland.
It has also been declassified as a wildfire of note, leaving two such fires in the province — one near Boston Bar and another near Clinton.
Across B.C., the number of active wildfires sits at around 200, with about 90 burning out of control as crews deal with new ignitions sparked by lightning.
Holmes said a key focus now that residents have returned and the immediate fire threat is over would be securing Summerland’s drinking water source that was damaged by the fire.
He said federal Minister of Emergency Management Eleanor Olszewski was visiting the area on Friday, and one of the key questions he would pose was what relief the community could expect.
“We’re just starting to really see the magnitude of it and the damage to our watershed, which is where we draw our drinking water,” he said. “That’s going to be a big concern moving forward.”
Olszewski’s office said the minister was visiting Summerland to see the fire’s damage for herself, adding that Ottawa had committed to matching donations to the Canadian Red Cross to support B.C.’s wildfire recovery effort.
Holmes said there were concerns about fire debris in the water supply, potentially contaminating the drinking source with ash and algae.
“We’re the only community on Okanagan Lake that doesn’t draw our drinking water from the lake,” he said. “We draw it all from reservoirs that we hold up in the watershed, and the fire has burnt right through that.”
Meanwhile, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said smoke visible in the Osoyoos area was due to a wildfire across the U.S. border, but there was no immediate threat to Canadian communities.
Photos posted online by the BC Wildfire Service and others show a large smoke column looming high above the a mountainside. The service said it was monitoring the situation closely.
The service said recent rain in southern B.C. had allowed authorities to lift a ban on off-road vehicles from Friday for large portions of the province.
Among the regions are the Southeast, Cariboo, Coastal and Kamloops wildfire zones.
To the west, an evacuation order for about 70 properties near Clinton, B.C., was downgraded to an alert as the region continued to deal with the massive Pear Lake wildfire measured at almost 1,660 square kilometres.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2026.
Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press
