‘We’re all pretty stressed out’: Residents in B.C.’s Okanagan flee fast-spreading fire

Residents in B.C.’s north Okanagan region say they had to leave their homes, possessions and in some cases their pets behind to escape a rapidly spreading wildfire near Vernon.

CBC News spoke with some of the evacuees at the Westbank Lions Community Centre in West Kelowna, which they said was so busy some people had to sleep in their cars overnight.

Tiffany Wilson, a member of the Okanagan Indian Band, said the Bradley Creek wildfire “just exploded overnight.” She said she and her family had already left when they heard that officials were evacuating her whole reserve.

“I was prepared to stay. But yeah, it just got too crazy with the winds today,” Wilson said, adding that she left with her daughter and son. “We’re all pretty stressed out.”

Wilson said the winds were so strong they blew over and crushed her shed. During a media update, officials said winds in the area reached up to 80 km/h.

In the back of her truck, parked in front of the community centre, Wilson had her dog, her rooster and three chickens.

According to B.C.’s director of wildfire operations on Sunday, an estimated 5,000 people have been evacuated across the province in the past 24 hours — many of them related to the Bradley Creek wildfire on the northwest side of Okanagan Lake.

The fire was discovered on Friday and as of Sunday afternoon had grown to 26 square kilometres. It’s one of six wildfires of note burning in the province.

Many of those evacuated from the Bradley Creek wildfire have headed to West Kelowna to seek refuge, while others have sought shelter in Vernon.

‘Mom, we’re going’

April Joy says she started to get ready to go with her family when she heard helicopters gathering water from the lake just a couple of blocks from her home.

“And then our power went out and I said, ‘Mom, we’re going. We’re not waiting for the [evacuation order]. We’re taking the dog and going,'” Joy said, in front of the same community centre.

Joy said she had to make the difficult decision to leave their elderly cats behind — she didn’t think they would withstand the trip in a hot, packed vehicle.

This was the first time Joy had been placed under an evacuation order, but she said signs of the last wildfire in the region were still evident — including in front of her home, where a tree stands half burnt, half alive.

‘Stranded in Vernon’

Shantal Copley says she also was worried about a cat left behind in her home.

Copley says she was displaced by the Quilpituk Creek wildfire near Fintry, on the west side of Okanagan Lake.

Copley says she was at work when she found out residents in her neighbourhood might be evacuated. But by the time she left and arrived at her home, police were turning people away.

“It’s been quite stressful for me knowing that I wasn’t able to go and grab anything from my house and I was basically stranded in Vernon,” she told CBC News.

“I couldn’t go and see my cat who was stuck at my house and it was just really stressful for me with trying to figure out what to do.”

Copley says her parents were able to go back to the house and get the cat and a few essentials, but the family is still stuck in Vernon.

‘I don’t know if I have a home left’

Speaking to CBC News south of Armstrong, about a kilometre east of the Bradley Creek wildfire, North Okanagan resident Rejane Simpson didn’t know what was left of her house.

“I don’t know if I have a home left,” Simpson said, sobbing. “And if I don’t have a home left I don’t know where I’m going to go because I sure can’t afford the rents that are out there now.”

Simpson said she was at work when she found out about the fire. She says when she found out the fire was out of control she sped home to get her animals, which she managed to access despite the road there already being blocked by officials.

Luckily, she says, she already had a go bag packed.

“I’ve tried to look. There’s so much smoke I can’t tell if my house has been missed or if it’s gone,” she said, wiping away tears. “It’s the not knowing that’s so scary.”

Simpson says she and her husband built the home together; he passed away two years ago and the thought of leaving all their memories behind was devastating.