Wildfire: As Central Okanagan recovery moves towards rebuild, risks remain

When the White Rock Lake wildfire ripped through several neighbourhoods on Westside Road late last summer, it left a trail of destruction in its wake.

Roughly six months later, most residents who lost homes have not yet started rebuilding.

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Although there is hope on the horizon as spring nears, there are still challenges that could delay rebuilding and long-term impacts from the fire that pose a risk to residents.

In the Central Okanagan Regional District alone, around 75 buildings were lost to the blaze.

On Thursday, roughly six months after the fire swept through, the regional district board received an update on the recovery process and heard that it is slowly shifting to a rebuilding phase.

“So far we’ve got a couple of building permits, one development permit. It’s really slowly starting to ramp up as areas are identified as safe to rebuild, then we are sort of moving forward with that process,” said Todd Cashin, the director of community services for the Regional District of Central Okanagan.

However, challenges to rebuilding remain, including the possibility of upslope hazards that require further assessment.

“We can’t allow people to move forward with rebuilding if it is unsafe to do so. We are really working hard to get those assessments done and to work with property owners and get the information,” Cashin said.

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Some residents are also dealing with insurance funding issues, the regional district electoral area director Wayne Carson said.

“It is very expensive to rebuild. (The) price of materials is way up, construction companies and crews are very, very busy,” Carson said.

Demolition permits have been issued to clear away the remains of burnt buildings on 46 properties, but so far only five building permits and one development permit have been applied for.

Still, Estamont resident Rob Greig expects his heavily impacted neighbourhood to be a construction zone this spring as those who lost homes rebuild.

Greig said the fire has put some stress on the tight-knit community but residents “are probably closer for it.”

Meanwhile, residents and those rebuilding are being warned some fire impacts could still be yet to come in the form of flooding or landslides.

Residents are being told to prepare for a larger than normal spring runoff.

“We want the property owners to be aware of the hazards above and to really be prepared for a spring with a lot of extra water coming down the hill. We know that when fires burn really hot that the soils react in a certain way that makes it easy for that water to come off,” said Cashin.

“If we get a really bad snow year or we have a couple of big rain events in the spring, we really need people to be keeping an eye on the hills above them.”

Assessments of the risk level to specific properties are available on the regional district website.

Residents and officials alike are now hoping the weather co-operates and the area is spared any further disasters.

“If we have a really great spring and mother nature co-operates, the issues won’t be that big of a deal. Having said that, we’ve gone through this before, we know that when the fires do burn hot like this that (if) we do end up with a big rain event or a high-intensity-duration-type rain event, we do know that soil can move downhill and plug culverts and cause landslides and that kind of thing,” Cashin said.

“If you see the weather forecast for a big rainstorm event, maybe check your culvert on your driveway. Or if you are driving down Westside Road and you see some soil or some sediment that has come off a driveway onto the road, maybe contact somebody and let us know. Time and time again these little things can turn into big things.

The Westside Road area has also experienced issues with landslides in the past.

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