Evacuees from the Trepanier blaze in Peachland breathed a sigh of relief as the final evacuation order was lifted from their neighbourhood late Wednesday afternoon.
Cars lined up on Trepanier Bench Road off Highway 97, waiting for emergency officials to let residents go back home.
“There’s nothing like your own pillow,” said Mickie Johnson as she waited beside her car. Johnson lives on Desert Pines Avenue and says she rushed out of her home when the fire sparked Sunday afternoon.
“We’ll grab this. We’ll grab that,” she said about her thought process as she fled with her belongings. The Peachland resident stayed in a West Kelowna while firefighters battled the flames and adds she is thankful for the work of emergency responders.
“We know our houses are still standing. We’re very grateful for that. The police department and the fireman, they have just been so remarkable,” Johnson said.
Many evacuees, like Gerry McQueen, waited with excitement for their homecoming and reflected back on their hurried escape.
“My wife started packing. I went to my neighbour’s yard and the flames were just coming around the corner of the hill there. I knew were going to be heading out,” McQueen said.
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“As I was driving out, there were flames right in the backyard of some of the houses. It came fast.”
“You could see the flames. It started to get a little bit dicey. We weren’t sure what we were going to come back to,” he said.
When the order was lifted, cars streamed up Trepanier Bench Road and back into the neighbourhood that had seen fire literally right in its backyard. Residents were seen unpacking boxes and animals from their vehicles, many of them amazed by how little damage there was to their properties.
“Coming back and looking at the results, I was expecting a lot worse,” said Colin Adderley. “I didn’t expect this kind of result.”
Adderley says he was initially in denial about the blaze, which at its height grew to 200 hectares.
“I thought the fire wouldn’t kick us out of the neighbourhood. I thought they would be able to put it out before it ever got this far,” he notes, adding the blaze instilled “pure fear” in him.
“It was pure chaos, like you would see in a movie maybe.”
Resident Ernie Hurd had similar thoughts as he drove away from the blaze.
“When we left, we looked up the bank and we went omigod. It’s going to be gone. That’s how serious it was,” Hurd said.
But when Hurd inspected his property, he tells CHBC News that he was not expecting what he saw.
“We just went to our backyard and nothing happened. It just missed us completely, which we are so thankful for.”
Hurd was over the moon about being back home and says he wants to thank those who came to the aid of him and his neighbours.
“What we would like to do…is have a celebration from this community…and invite the firefighters back for a barbecue,” Hurd said.
“We’re all excited about being home.”
While the evacuation order has been lifted for about 1,550 residents, all of them still remain on an evacuation alert. An evacuation alert means residents must be ready to leave their homes at a moment’s notice.
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