Ray Warnock surveyed the damage to his ’96 Land Rover and the parts of his property covered in red fire retardant Thursday, but remains in awe that the Kaleden wildfire spared his house Tuesday night.
“Fortunately, the fire seemed to jump the house,” Warnock said.
The shed on the property was destroyed.
His neighbour was not so lucky. They lost everything.
The fast moving fire traveled up the ravine and gutted that house.
“It’s unbelievable that we have everything still,” Warnock said thankfully.
Warnock’s father-in-law was house-sitting the night of the fire.
“By the time we took off up the top of this driveway, the fire was right at the fence,” Dan Wiebe said. “We barely made it out of here. One more minute and it would have been too late.”
The Kaleden wildfire grew to 6.5 hectare but burned right through a neighbourhood in the small community along Highway 97 south of Penticton.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but is believed to be human caused.
Warnock is thankful to firefighters from Kaleden, Penticton and Okanagan Falls as well as the B.C. Wildfire Service.