The wrath of the McDougall Creek wildfire hit the rural outreaches of the community hardest, with the greatest number of structure losses recorded in North Westside.
“The fire was intense. It came very quickly. It came with violence. I can’t describe it any other way,” Paul Zydowicz, fire chief of Wilson’s Landing, a community in the North Westside said.
The area, which includes Traders Cove and Wilson Landing, where Lake Okanagan Resort was situated, was home to 90 of the estimated 182 properties scorched throughout the region.
“It was, it was a violent event. The world shattered,” Zydowicz said.
“The wind was (blowing) 30 to 50 kilometres an hour with ember showers that were being driven from the mountain down into Trader’s Cove and then at our firefighters.”
As the spot fire started around the community, his crew scrambled to reach them but then structures would become engulfed.
“Eventually we just didn’t have enough personnel on the ground and enough apparatus to be able to effectively continue fighting the fire,” he said.
“So we pulled back somewhat as the main fire blew through. We entered the community again to save houses from getting caught by their next houses that were already on fire.”
The losses they witnessed were personal. Of his small, volunteer-based crew, 13 members, including Zydowicz himself, lost their homes.
Throughout it all they never stopped working, recording shifts at least 22-hours long, and suffering injuries along the way.
“We had two individuals that had minor injuries. One was burnt to the face and he went to the hospital and the other was a broken wrist,” Zydowicz said.
“They both called me immediately after being released from the hospital and said, I want to be on the next shift. So that’s kind of the way it’s gone.”
He said the experience has been “a lot” and the help of family has helped guide them through these past few days along with the immense community outpouring.
“(My wife has) been taking care of the insurance company and talking with Mamas for Mamas to get our resources set up for the firefighters that have lost homes,” he said.
“I literally had my shorts at the fire hall. That was the only thing that I owned as far as clothing goes. So I can’t say enough about Mamas for Mamas…. they’ve supported us with our personal items or toiletries or socks and underwear. You don’t realize what you need until you realize you don’t have it.”
For two of three communities dealing with this fire, the work ahead is recovery-based. On the West Kelowna side of Okanagan Lake, however, the firefight is still very real.
During a morning update about conditions, BC Wildfire’s Brad Litke said the McDougall Creek wildfire is now mapped at more than 12,000 hectares and still listed as out of control.
Worse yet, conditions are expected to increase in the coming days, so the effort during these cooler and calmer days is to work at creating fuel guards, doing hand ignitions and using various other firefighting methods to control the fire’s spread.
It may look a lot smokier, as such.
“The operation will bring the fire into more operable terrain for the firefighters as well,” Litke said.
“In addition to this planned ignition, an ignition operation could also be conducted above the Smith Creek … if conditions warrant the weather conditions overnight.”
He said crews were patrolling from Shannon Heights to Bartley Road, as well as pushing west to support the heavy equipment line that they’re trying to install.