The horrific scenes coming out of Los Angeles, where wildfires have killed at least five people and destroyed thousands of structures, are triggering difficult memories in the Okanagan.
“Seeing the footage takes me right back to those horrible nights in our community where day literally turned to night, the orange glow is exactly the same — I can smell the smells,” West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund told Global News.
Brolund was in command when the McDougall Creek wildfire tore through the streets of West Kelowna’s Westside neighbourhoods after surging into the community from the nearby hills.
The blaze eventually crossed to Kelowna, then Lake Country, destroying nearly 200 homes and displacing thousands of people.
Crews spent 48 harrowing hours fighting the fires, many of them doing so while their own homes were at risk in the fire zone.
The images of flames consuming suburban homes and the at times chaotic efforts to hold them back and ensure no one was left behind have become emblematic of 21st-century wildfire amid climate change and a growing wildland-urban interface zone.
“While the scale of this fire is much larger than what we experienced, the factors are the same: dry weather, leading up to a very intense windstorm creating embers spread over a very wide area, and just the destruction,” Brolund said.
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“These are all things we now know and understand, and it’s haunting.”
Brolund said the situation in Los Angeles is yet another reminder that people need to be prepared for increasingly dangerous fire seasons.
That includes having an emergency kit and grab-and-go back, along with following Firesmart guidelines to reduce risk on residential properties, like trimming brush and moving flammable objects away from homes.
In Vancouver, firefighters are also watching the Los Angeles fires closely.
“It is understandable that people are looking at that, concerned, and maybe looking around, could this happen here? And understand that there is very different things that are in place here,” Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) spokesperson Capt. Matthew Trudeau said.
“These are very different geographies, the topography is very different, the vegetation is very different, completely different climates, the rainfall is different.”
Nonetheless, Trudeau said his department has spent years building up the capacity to handle a major disaster, whether it be fires or the fallout from a powerful earthquake.
Trudeau said the city has a “robust” system of hydrants and a dedicated pump, reservoir and supply system in place to ensure water pressure in the case of disaster.
When it comes to the risk of wildfire, Trudeau said Vancouver is vulnerable in three areas — the southeast, Pacific Spirit Park near UBC and Stanley Park.
He said VFRS had taken steps to ensure trained crews and gear are positioned near those high-risk areas.
“We do have three forested areas. We are having more fires. last year was the second busiest ever for fires ever in our history, only followed by the year before,” he said.
“We have prioritized having our wildland vehicles with people who are trained on those.”
Trudeau said the city has implemented the recommendations of a 2015 third-party review of its firefighting capacity, and is currently conducting a new review anticipating future threats as the city grows.
More than 180,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Los Angeles as multiple fires continue to burn out of control.
Aerial images of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood show block after block of homes burned to their foundations.
While the largest fires, Palisades and Eaton, are still raging, officials say there has been very little growth.
Lighter winds on Thursday gave crews a chance to use aerial assets to help get the fires under control. Two planes from Quebec and several aircraft from B.C.-based companies Coulson and ConAir are assisting with the fight.
Federal Emergency Minister Harjit Sajjan said Thursday that 250 firefighters from Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, along with more aircraft, were being deployed to help.
British Columbia and California are also in direct talks to supply “senior-level expertise” to work on the fire’s front lines, according to B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar.
The BC Wildfire Service met directly with Cal Fire on Thursday to discuss what the state needs and next steps, he added.
The damage from the Los Angeles fires is predicted to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
— with files from Klaudia Van Emmerik, Aaron McArthur and Kathy Michaels
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