NEAR KELOWNA – Hundreds of people are back in the comfort of their homes as the evacuation order was lifted for most of properties in Joe Rich on Saturday night. Though 80 per cent of those forced to leave Friday afternoon are back at home, they’re still on evacuation alert.
Joe Rich resident Tim Walters says the blaze tore through the area and threatened his home. It’s his first wildfire experience.
“I came around the corner in the woods and I could see the plume of smoke and it was quite the feeling because I could tell it was near our house,” says Walters. “I saw so many helicopters carrying water; it was like a war-zone quite frankly, it was very intense, very surreal.”
Walters’ two roommates fled the property as soon as the evacuation order took effect.
“We immediately went into action because we have horses, dogs, cats and their welfare comes first,” says Louise Fenez, one of Walters’ roomates.
However, Walter didn’t leave his home, despite the evacuation order.
“I actually stayed here through the whole evacuation to keep an eye on the place and let everybody else know what was going on,” he says.
For resident Jackie Coombs, being back home is temporary relief. She lives on Huckleberry Road, just metres away from homes still on evacuation order as of Sunday morning, leaving her worried for her house and animals.
“The wind is picking up and we are sort of cleaning the camper and getting ready to go again just in case,” says Coombs.
Fire crews managed to bring the blaze, originally more than 80 hectares in size, to full containment in just 48 hours
But there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“It’s a labour-intensive process to actually put a fire out, catching it is one thing, controlling it is one thing, but actually extinguishing it takes a lot of manpower, a lot of hard work,” says Dale Bojahra, Incident Commander for B.C. Wildfire Service.
“We’ll be here for a number of days to come.”
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