Okanagan woman’s items salvaged from 2023 wildfire going to New York

For Heather MacKay, digging through ashes of what was once her home in West Kelowna, B.C., was emotional.

Her home was among those destroyed by last summer’s McDougall Creek wildfire.

“It was depressing,” MacKay told Global News. “I just remember I could hardly breathe because everything was just gone.”

Everything was lost except for a few small items the hair stylist managed to find and now holds very dear to her heart.

“Some of my seasonal salt and pepper shakers, and I could see a little peach trinket dish I had by the bathroom sink,” MacKay said.

Amid the pile of debris, MacKay also found a Christmas ornament.

“This one little tiny gnome that was inside of a snow globe. It looks like a charcoal briquette, but I kept it,” she said.

2:04 Firefighter rebuilding following McDougall Creek wildfire

The now sentimental pieces are making their way all the way to New York for a pop-up exhibit highlighting the human costs of climate-related events.

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“Who would have thought that you know somebody in West Kelowna that owns four things form her past would have those things in New York for the whole world to see,” MacKay said.

But that is exactly the goal of Sierra Club Canada, the organization behind the exhibit taking place during New York Climate Week, when global heads of state including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also be at the United Nations to address global challenges such as wildfires and floods.

“We do have ways that we can act on climate change. The federal government has been promising for a while now an emissions cap on emissions from the oil and gas corporations that we know are the lion’s share of emissions in Canada,” said Conor Curtis, the head of communications for Sierra Club Canada. “And so we are also calling, as part of this exhibit, for the government to announce and to enact that cap as quickly as possible.”

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The Mcdougall Creek wildfire scorched 140 square kilometres of land, consuming nearly 200 structures.

MacKay’s artifacts will be among many others from people affected across Canada.

“I’m 49 and that’s all I have for my past. And so I just want people to be able to see them and realize it’s real,” an emotional MacKay said.

The exhibit takes place on Sept. 24.