The Bradley Creek wildfire has changed thousands of people’s lives.
The Okanagan Indian Band said 230 properties have been destroyed by the wildfire.
Among them is the home where Amber Cardenas lived for 12 years. Cardenas said her family returned from a camping trip Friday, July 31, and the news of the wildfire was not what they expected.
Cardenas said strong winds over the B.C. Day long weekend fanned the fire north toward their house, in the opposite direction from what officials had predicted. Within an hour on Saturday, Aug. 1, the blaze was in their backyard, leaving the family only five to 10 minutes to grab what they could before evacuating.
According to the Okanagan Indian Band, winds reached 80 km/h.
“It was pretty scary because we’re scrambling to be like, ‘what should we grab?’ and what can we realistically grab,” Cardenas said.
She said the B.C. Wildfire Service confirmed Sunday that her home was gone and that she was also shown pictures. Cardenas said the loss felt surreal and had not fully sunk in.
“It was devastating,” she said. “A big part of me feels like I failed my partner and her family, but there’s an explosion of emotions, of frustration, sadness, anger, regret.”
“But it is the reality that is my reality, and many other people I know and care about, and in the community and my family,” she said. “It’s a very indescribable loss.”
Cardenas reflected on her time living in the home with her partner. She first began spending time there after meeting her partner as a teenager.
“It was a beautiful home and it wasn’t perfect, but it was full of love and many family gatherings, dinners and our home business that we had of jewelry making,” she said. “Family mementos, things from my grandma, both my late grandmothers that are gone, and from her late grandmother that’s gone, and her late mom that are gone.”
She said she is taking this loss day by day.
“We’ll be driving to the store just to grab a couple things and tears start flowing down our face because we are reflecting on things that we’ll never get back in this life,” Cardenas noted emotionally. “We just appreciate our friends and family that have opened their arms to us.”
She said she hopes other families and individuals receive support from the community and that no more homes are lost.
Cardenas is now staying with her sister-in-law in West Kelowna, but her first stop was Kal Tire Place in Vernon, where hundreds of evacuees were staying.
According to the City of Vernon, more than 2,600 people from 1,262 households registered at the city’s Emergency Support Services reception centre at Kal Tire Place.
Ron Cartmell, a volunteer with the Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Services, said his team’s job is not only to hand out food and water but also to listen to people who need to talk.
“I think one of the most important things is we are listening here … just being willing to listen,” he said. “We’re trying to support the evacuees and the volunteers.”
Cartmell said one of the biggest challenges for many evacuees is the uncertainty about when they will be able to return home.
“Some people are very aware that they lost their house, but others have no idea when they’re gonna get back and so everybody’s dealing with all this uncertainty.”
He added that the hours are long. He remembered arriving at 5 a.m. and leaving at 9 p.m. one day to volunteer at the evacuation site.
“Some days I go home with sort feet,” he said light-heartedly. “But sore feet is pretty minimal in comparison to the loss that everybody else’s here is feeling.”
Cartmell said the community has stepped up with donations of food, clothing, blankets, pillows and financial support.
“We are neighbours helping neighbours,” he stated. “Neighbours stick together and help each other through these times.”
The B.C. Wildfire Service, Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness and Okanagan Indian Band held a news conference Aug. 4 to update the community on the Bradley Creek wildfire and its effects.
The panel included Okanagan Indian Band Chief Dan Wilson, B.C. Wildfire Service Kamloops Fire Centre manager Jeffrey Dunne and Andrew Morrison, director of regional response for the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.
Morrison said the ministry has been working with communities across the Okanagan to find as much accommodation as possible.
“Part of that emergency support services is providing support to evacuees in a way that supports them. We can offer some direct referrals and or e-transfers to support some of their own decision making,” he said.
The wildfire was 2,852 hectares as of 10:50 a.m. Aug. 6, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. Three evacuation alerts and four evacuation orders were in effect.
Wilson described seeing the community from a bird’s-eye view during a helicopter flight over the long weekend. He said it was “devastating.”
“It looked like a war zone,” he said. “It was hard to recognize my community from the air, with all the structures and the forests gone.”
Dunne said crews expected temperatures to rise across the region over the next few days, along with stronger winds.
“So our priority is getting as much containment as we can on the current fires and really watching out to see if any new ones start.”
He said significant challenges would remain even after the fire was brought under control.
“Because there was a number of structure losses within this fire, there is, there’s all the toxic waste that comes with any of these properties burning.”
The City of Vernon provided update saying Highway 97 is now open to the public after being closed for many days. Motorist are still encouraged to check DriveBC for current closures.
