Some residents along the shores of Okanagan Lake are finally getting some good news: wildland firefighters are getting the Bald Range wildfire under control.
Most of the 20,000 people who were forced to flee their homes are expected to be able to return in the coming days, and as evacuation orders gradually begin lifting around Summerland, we’re getting a sense of what’s left.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similikameen now says that at least 150 structures in the area have been damaged or destroyed – but it’s not clear how many of those structures were homes versus sheds or barns.
In the face of losing her home and much of her family’s equestrian centre to the Bald Range wildfire, Danielle Valcourt is doing her best to keep things in perspective.
“We lost a lot on this farm,” she said. “So much memorabilia of our deceased family members, and we lost the place that I grew up in, and I don’t know, I can’t even list the amount of things we lost.”
“But I think we got out with every single thing that really, really mattered to us, which is the people and the animals.”
And that wasn’t a given. At a moment’s notice, Valcourt says they needed to evacuate barn cats, pregnant dogs, and 29 horses – including a foal that was just born that afternoon.
It came down to the wire, with Valcourt forced to lead the last, most uncooperative horse away from the area by hand as officials cut off access to the area.
“Every time she saw the flames on the hill coming down towards us, she would freak out and pull away,” she said.
“I had just this split second in my mind where I was like, ‘If she pulls any harder, my arm is going to break.’”
More than a week later, the community is coming together to support Valcourt’s family. Meanwhile, the fire is burning a path northwest, away from Summerland, with the BC Wildfire Service saying its other flanks are being held behind control lines.
That has allowed people like Valcourt to get temporary permits to visit their properties.
Others, like Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes, are now able to fully return.
“I feel a little guilty when there’s so many residents still waiting to get home,” Holmes said.
He says work is well underway to get everyone back home, with the sewage plant back up and running and power restored to 90 per cent of properties. He says one of the last major hurdles is making sure that everyone who doesn’t have a home to come back to has been given the news.
“We have social workers and counsellors making those calls to those people who have lost their homes and providing those social supports that they might need.”
Holmes says if it weren’t for the firefighters, the number of properties lost to the fire would have been much higher.
“When people come back, they’re going to see where the fire burned, and right up into their backyards in many cases, but the house was saved,” he said.
“Whole neighbourhoods were saved, with embers showering down on them. It’s just an incredible story of heroism.”
