Bible camp evacuated
Kids spent the night camping out in Emmanuel Church in West Kelowna after Maple Springs Bible Camp voluntarily evacuated its campers Thursday night as a precaution.
The week-long camp had been scheduled to end at noon Friday.
Winds were driving the Munro Lake Fire closer to the camp at 5247 Inga St. in Peachland Thursday, prompting evacuation alerts and orders nearby.
“We did see the Àre coming,” said Mark Wilson, camp director. “We were just wanted to be extra cautious because we have so many campers.”
Around 70 kids were taken by bus to Emmanuel Church in West Kelowna.
Wilson said the evacuation went smoothly and the camp leaders were great.
It was pretty late by the time campers arrived at the church, said Wilson.
It had been skit night at camp, so campers went ahead with their skits in the gym and played a little game before going to bed.
Many parents opted to pick up their children at Emmanuel Church Thursday night with about 20 campers spending the night at the church where their families picked them up Friday morning.
“We just played games and had our skit night which was very fun,” said Cohen Reimer, 11, one of the campers who stayed overnight at the church.
Reimer said although the campers had heard the storm with the lightning earlier in the week, he hadn’t heard about the Àre until the evacuation.
Reimer said he wasn’t really scared, but not happy about being evacuated. “I just kind of felt uncomfortable,” he said. Angel Yurle was at Emmanuel Church just after 8 a.m. Friday morning picking up her daughter Ashlin, who was a Leader in Training at the camp.
“I’d rather do it now, because maybe we have to evacuate our house,” she said.
The family had been evacuated last spring because of a mudslide and had just Ànished repairing their home before the Àres began.
Yurle had already packed the back of her vehicle Friday morning in case an evacuation order from the Mount Eneas Fire.
“I am thinking we should move back to Colombia,” said Yurle. “We kill each other, but we don’t have Àres.”