Kaleden people go home

Wildfire is now under control

Joline McNolty was sitting on the beach at Pioneer Park in Kaleden with family and friends trying to cool off on Wednesday afternoon.

They’d been doing the same thing 24 hours earlier when a wildfire took off in the community and later tore through vineyards and swallowed a home.

“Our poor kids were asking, ‘What’s going on?’ and crying,” McNolty recalls. “But, now, we’re all just having a good family de-brief at the beach because everyone’s OK.”

After noticing smoke coming from the east and hearing from neighbours about the fire, McNolty’s family headed home to pack before going to a friend’s place.

“We went home and started spraying off our house and throwing a few little things together,” she said.

“But when we saw police going door to door, we really started packing. We went home at probably 4:20 p.m. and we were evacuated by 5 p.m.”

Once they’d realized the gravity of the situation, the next few minutes were tense.

“There was a lot of smoke yesterday and ashes that were coming down in our yard that I would say were five by five inches — massive, just huge,” she said.

“It’s scary and nerve-wracking and you don’t really know what’s going to happen. We just sort of hunkered down and waited to hear the good news.”

Just down the hill, Craig Lewis was running on all cylinders as well. The Ponderosa Point Resort and its wooden structures appeared to be at the mercy of the wind.

“The wind was just picking up at the time so it started to spread really fast,” Lewis, the resort manager, said. “Myself and a couple of my staff stayed and watched the section of the property next to the KVR and hosed sections down because we had fears of it coming our way.”

Lewis said the guests panicked and quickly evacuated, until it was just him remaining to keep an eye on the encroaching blaze.

“Pretty much everybody was gone by the time I finished with the threat of the fire here,” he said.

“It was very unusual to see the place so empty in the summer.”

Lewis stayed overnight to watch over the property just in case while his wife and dog stayed in a hotel.

“She didn’t really want me to come back here,” he said. “I pretty much just slept in my La-Z-Boy last night just in case I had to go back out. I had a boat in case I needed to escape.”

The efforts of teams from the Kaleden, Okanagan Falls, Penticton and Naramata fire department, plus the BC Wildfire Service, had the blaze 100 per cent contained by Wednesday afternoon.

Not long after, people made their way back to their homes, their businesses and the beach.

“There are lots of us here who experienced something,” McNolty said, gesturing to the group gathered at Pioneer Park Wednesday afternoon.

“Through the night we were all checking on each other. Our community, and all of the crews, are amazing, we all banded together to help.”

As fire crews packed up at Kaleden fire hall Wednesday, a sign across the street read:

“A heartfelt thanks to all firefighters and RCMP, you saved Kaleden.”

All 234 registered evacuees were able to go home Wednesday.

The evacuation order has been rescinded, but the alert for 165 properties across the southern part of the community was still in place as of Wednesday evening.