OUT OF THE LINE OF FIRE
When lightning started first string of wildfires, families knew to evacuate
Valley residents band together to save horses from B.C blazes,
SUMMERLAND, B.C.— Around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday evening, Shelley Joyce and her family were packed up and ready to vacate their Garnet Valley property in Summerland, B.C. The evacuation alert the police handed them about an hour earlier doesn’t require them to leave right away, but they’ve been watching as the nearby Mt. Eneas fire crept closer to their property for the last 24 hours and they’re not taking any risks. But one family member is being stubborn.
Starr, a black mare, doesn’t want to get in the back of the trailer that will transport her to the other side of town — and to safety from the fire and smoke.
The horses have known they’d have to move since Tuesday, Joyce said, when lightning started the first of the week’s string of wildfires.
By now, the horses as well as the human residents of Summerland know to expect summer disruptions caused by wildfires in the dry and hot Okanagan Valley.
The same thing happened last year when another wildfire blazed too close for comfort. Joyce estimated on Friday that more than 100 animals had been removed from the valley in the past 24 hours.
Glen Burgess, incident commander for the Okanagan fire complex, said there were 14 fires in total on Friday strung out along the Okanagan Lake corridor between Penticton and West Kelowna, with more than 200 ground crew members and 20 helicopters fighting them.
Around 2,000 people in the area were put on notice that they may have to evacuate their homes overnight Thursday following growth of the largest fire. Some properties under evacuation alert in the Law Creek area have since had the alert removed.
The remarkable thing about fires coming dangerously close to communities, Joyce said, is that even as they worry for the safety of themselves and their property, the animal owners don’t fail to band together to make sure everyone’s all right.
Joyce started helping transport horses from her neighbours’ properties at midnight the previous night.
“We just networked back and forth because there are so many people here that don’t have trucks and trailers but they have a farm and horses,” she said. “And they love their animals.” In anticipation of evacuations many horse owners have made quasi-reservations for their horses with friends in town — everyone at a different location so that they don’t step on each other’s toes (or hooves).
It’s necessary planning, because while people may be prepared to leave their homes in a hurry, transporting large animals takes time and work.
It’s not just horses either. The area west of Okanagan Lake between Peachland and Summerland, where the greatest number of evacuations have taken place, is full of livestock and pets: from llamas and sheep to bunnies, cats and dogs.
Eva Sim, who lives in Peachland and has not yet received an evacuation alert, has a hobby farm with sheep and llamas.
“If there were to be an alert, all our friends would come and help us move the animals,” Sim said. She’s meanwhile watering her pastures and hoping the fire doesn’t get any closer. Cheryl Rogers, who coordinates the volunteer-run Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team, said the organization recommends animal owners don’t wait until they’ve been ordered to evacuate before moving their animals.
The organization was called in by the District of Summerland this week to help transport and temporarily house animals affected by wildfire evacuations.
Rogers said between 20 and 50 people — both locals and people from across the province — have offered their assistance to Summerland.
“We’ve had inquiries from people down in the lower mainland, further up into Cariboo, saying ‘I have a truck and a trailer if you need me I’ll come,’ ” she said.
Even before CDART responded in Summerland, neighbours were already co-ordinating their own animal relocation networks.
Bryan Slater, who is part of the community committee that maintains the Summerland district-owned rodeo grounds, offered to set up the space as a makeshift staging area for evacuees to bring their large animals while they arrange for a more comfortable location to foster them throughout the fire.
At any given time, he said, there are about 15 animals on the rodeo grounds, mostly cows and horses.
“A lot of them want to take their livestock, they’re part of their families and they want to take them where they’d be most comfortable,” Slater said.
On Friday afternoon he said the grounds housed one pregnant cow, eight miniature cows and a horse.
“We’ve had a whole group of them that have used the facility as a stepping stone to just get the animals further out of danger,” he said. “In a time like right now, it’s invaluable to have that area that’s set up to hold livestock.”
He’s been on scene to make sure the animals have enough water and food to be comfortable. The evacuation alert hasn’t reached Slater’s property in town, with the nearest home under evacuation alert located four blocks away.
So he’s volunteered to take in two cats and two dogs for an evacuee, in addition to watching the rodeo grounds.
“They’re good,” he said, “but my dog was wondering why the heck I brought two more home.”