Fire threatens farmers’ livelihoods
Families largely reject idea of abandoning homes, livestock to wildfire
Ash falling from the sky covered the front of Sam Dueck’s car as it sat parked on the road while he assembled a portable fire extinguisher.
“If the fire makes it to the other side of the valley, they’ll have to start moving animals,” he said, pointing toward the Mount Hicks blaze burning near his family farm.
Residents on Kamp Road in Agassiz received an evacuation alert on Monday due to the increasing threat of a nearby wildfire. The area, close to the Seabird Island First Nation, consists of five farm properties, where owners are largely rejecting the idea of leaving in case the alert turns into an order.
Early Tuesday, the fire began burning past the crest of the mountain and onto the opposite side at a rapid pace — coming to a halt right on the steps of a dairy farm.
In the absence of firefighters at night, Dueck’s family members took it upon themselves to guard the property by using extinguishers to put out falling embers before they sparked any damage.
“It was around 2 a.m., and no one realized how fast the fire was coming over the mountain,” said Henry Gouwenberg, the owner of the farm.
“The trees would burn off and fall down the hill and re-light the area below, and repeat. It reached the bottom of the mountain in no time.”
The mountainside was red. But by the morning, a thick haze and orange hue made it hard to see beyond 90 metres.
While crews have been fighting the fire for more than a week, its expansion into a wall of flame below the mountain overnight was “almost apocalyptic” for the Gouwenbergs, who in 1974 lost their farm to a barn fire that killed 120 of their cattle.
“That was a devastating one,” he said.
“It was a major setback. You got to bed at night and you wake up in the morning and you have no cows left,” he said.
“Your income stops, and your expenses go through the roof. We’re rooted here. If I just had a house, I could grab my belongings and drive away. But I can’t do that here. This is my livelihood.”
The farm was redone with steelbuilt roofs and stucco sidings. With more than 200 cows on the farm, Gouwenberg said their transportation would be hard.
Saving livestock amid wildfires is an added layer of difficulty for areas that have little time to respond to growing fires. Luckily for Gouwenberg, the alert has given him time to call local farmers in places like Chilliwack, who have agreed to hold his cattle as a containment plan if needed.
But the fate of the fire rests heavily on the weather and wind, said Lynn Orstad, fire information assistant for the Fraser Fire Zone.
“It’s going on a downward slope because of the winds, we’re hoping a change in wind will calm it a bit,” she said.
“The fire seems to have stopped almost at (the farm’s) borders because they’re highly irrigated.”
The fire is thought to have started by sparks coming off the rim of a car’s flat tire, Orstad said, though an investigation is still underway.
Agassiz deputy fire chief Gerald Basten said in his 34 years of service he has never seen a fire that has required this much painstaking manpower.
“It’s an extremely difficult fire to fight due to the inaccessible terrain. It’s unworkable for ground crews to get into many areas,” Basten said.
“It’s forcing crews to hike in, build a landing pad, so they can fly equipment in, and further crews.”
The fire covers 2.08 square kilometres and continues to grow, with 30 per cent containment.
About 41 firefighters, with five helicopters, are on the scene, though the hazy skies have repeatedly hampered aircraft operations.
As he looked at the fumes ahead of him, Gouwenberg said he hopes the family can wait out the fire and avoid trouble.
“It’s a delicate situation, thinking about when you have to pull the plug,” he said.
“I’ve lived here all my life, born in 1954, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Once the smoke clears out it’s going to look ugly, but we’ll adjust. As long as nobody’s hurt.”
We’re rooted here. If I just had a house, I could grab my belongings and drive away. But I can’t do that here.