An area still haunted by wildfires that wreaked havoc two decades ago grapples with fresh destruction and the terror of not knowing what comes next
Thursday, the neighbours were having a party. People stood on their deck, chatting and drinking. The day had been around 35 degrees again, and the evening air still had that trapped, oven-like August heat.
We threw things into the car: backpacks, shoes, pictures. The wind outside was stifling. My son kept filming as we joined a slow train of vehicles leaving. My daughter cried; we’d had to leave our two budgies, their cage too big to move. Cars ahead of us kept pulling over, drivers angling for pictures of the flames. When we reached the main road, fire trucks shot past. They were from districts as far off as Hope, near Vancouver. Most local equipment had already been sent to help across the lake.
Nobody slept much. At 7 a.m., the smell of smoke was pungent, almost animal. Through the stinging haze outside, we could just make out the orange flames, with its beachfront tiki bar, directly across the water. Then, another knock at the door: a man told us to get out immediately. The fire had jumped the lake again. Embers blown over the water had lit multiple sites, including one just above the driveway.
Rumours came in chaotic fits. More spot fires. People having to jump into the water to escape their burning westside homes. The fires on our side growing. My dad, a radio lover, kept his ear to the CBC on an old transistor. On our phones, a Twitter/X user called “ The wind turned as we headed back up the street. A blast of dirt and ash hit our backs, and the light browned. We got to the apartment as the wind pitched higher and an artificial dark came down. Social media reported fire falling all over the city now. The landfill was burning. The University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus was evacuating with almost no warning. The hospital was preparing for casualties. Main roads were closing, no way north.
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