`THERE'S FIRES EVERYWHERE'
Calgarians describe escape from B.C.
Some Calgarians are feeling the heat from the almost 300 wildfires burning across the British Columbia Interior.
The blazes led B.C. to enter a provincial state of emergency on Wednesday. The move is meant to help the province prepare for potential mass evacuations as severe wildfires continue to threaten communities.
Calgarian Liz Peterson said she and her husband were leery about heading to B.C. due to worsening fire conditions, but wanted to see his newborn grandson in Kelowna.
On Wednesday, they ran a gauntlet of fire, heavy smoke and detours to get back to Calgary. The route home on Highway 97A is closed due to a wildfire south of Sicamous at Two Mile Creek that has put most of the town on evacuation order or alert.
“We got detoured from Kelowna to Salmon Arm. You could see that the whole side of the mountain was on fire, although in the daytime it mostly just looks like smoke billowing out,” said Peterson.
“There's literally fires everywhere. Osoyoos is on fire, the mountain beside Three Valley Gap is on fire,” she said.
“We couldn't see anything all the way from Lake Louise to Kelowna, no mountains were even visible, that's how thick the smoke is.”
Scientists say climate change has intensified the extreme heat that has plagued Western Canada over the past month, contributing to an increased risk of wildfires.
According to the B.C. government, 40 evacuation orders are in effect in the province, affecting about 5,700 people. Another 69 evacuation alerts, which tell people to be to ready to leave their homes on short notice, are affecting nearly 33,000 people.
The situation could worsen as the week continues, the B.C. Wildfire Service said in a bulletin, with windy conditions in the Interior creating a risk of spreading the flames.
“The rate of fire spread will likely increase, and the direction of fire growth may change quickly on some wildfires,” the bulletin read.
Glenn Fawcett is the president of the Black Hills Estate Winery, located just north of Osoyoos in the Okanagan Valley.
On Monday, they were put under an evacuation alert from the Nk'mip Creek wildfire, and have been closed to the public since. There hasn't been any effect yet, but Fawcett said winery owners across the valley are watching the situation closely.
“Most of the fire has hit the hillsides and has hit the mountains, but none of the winery buildings, as far as I know, and none of the vineyards have been touched by the flames,” he said.
“The primary loss at this junction is just tourism. That's the short-term effect. And I guess the longer-term perspective as these forest fires continue to build, it's a big retardant for people to come to the valley. What impact it'll have in the big picture, we probably won't know until September when the smoke has cleared.”
Fawcett said his winery is becoming more accustomed to working around wildfires, after several severe seasons over the past half-decade.
The nearby landscape does help insulate wine country from the flames, however.
“Most of the surroundings around vineyard country are scrub brushes, antelope brush, black sagebrush, that burns really quickly and it's gone,” Fawcett said. “It's not like there's a huge forest of trees that create a big critical mass like a forest fire. It's quick grass fires that are in and out.”
Calgarian Elsa Gretton said cottagers on Mara Lake near Sicamous are nervously watching a fire that erupted near the north Okanagan town Tuesday, cutting off Highway 97A, their most direct route to the Trans-canada Highway
“Everyone's really nervous about the direction the wind is blowing,” said Gretton, 20, who's staying at her boyfriend's family's summer home south of Sicamous.
“Smoke is still blowing upwards and the road is still closed. It's pretty crazy.
“We haven't been evacuated but we have to be alert.”
The blaze has knocked out power in the area several times, and the Sicamous restaurant where she's employed is the only business in the vicinity that's open, she added.
What impact it'll have in the big picture, we probably won't know until September when the smoke has cleared.
Peterson said non-essential trips into the Interior aren't worth it right now.
“I would not recommend travelling,” Peterson said. “I just want to go home.”
Highway 1 remains closed due to wildfires in both directions between Hope and Lytton, where two people died earlier this month in a blaze that destroyed roughly 90 per cent of the village.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 299 active wildfires in B.C.; about a third were considered to be burning out of control.
So far in 2021, wildfires have burned more than 3,000 square kilometres of land in B.C. That's about three times the amount burned by this time of year on average over the past decade.