British Columbia is on fire...

[wolfsoul]

Thanks Candace for PMing me, I wouldn't have seen this thread otherwise.

We live in Glenrosa in West Kelowna (so does Jynnelle, Tikeyas_mom), so we were evacuated (along with 15,000 others) a couple weeks back when the huge Glenrosa fire was blazing. I'm not sure how many houses were lost, but we made out okay. We stayed at my FIL's place and actually had a good weekend -- 6 people and 6 dogs all packed into one house, it was crazy, but we barbequed every night and the government was generous enough to help everyone out to buy groceries and clothes and such. I wasn't even home when the evacuation occured but had the puppies with me, and Kyle was home. He ended up staying at the house until midnight or so because he was afraid of looters (there were lots of them!) and finally left with Visa and our other valuables because they wouldn't let me back in and he didn't want me to stay in town alone. He hiked back to the house through the canyon a couple of times just to check on it and make sure everything was okay. Two of our neighbors ended up staying behind as well and they kept an eye on our house -- in fact we found evidence of their drunkiness on our patio and in the yard LOL.
Apparently we had a group of 9 looters in the neighborhood but my neighbor pulled a gun on them and he and my other neighbor ended up beating two of them senseless while the others ran back through the canyon. Alot of people lost alot of valuables in Glenrosa -- the police wouldn't let you back in for anything, it was ridiculous. A friend of mine was in his car behind a man trying to get through the barricade -- his kids were at home, he needed to go get them, and the police wouldn't let him through. He finally smashed his truck into the police cars. So many people had to leave pets behind -- alot of pets went without owners for several days in the house. Our friends were rear-ended by a lady who was suffering some sort of stress/panic thing -- she just kept her foot on the gas, pushed their truck out of the way, and ended up crashing her car -- when they went to get her out she was very disoriented and confused, didn't know what was happening.
Hotels were booked in every city to almost three hours away. Alot of people had to stay in shelters. The SPCA was filled to the max, foster homes had to take pets. Horses were (and still are) a big issue, more people need to be willing to foster them.

The valley has just been a mess in the last month. A new fire starts here almost every day. We saw lightening strike across the lake last week and it burned atleast a few acres befroe it was put out. Yesterday another small forest fire started about five minutes from here.
Right now it's the Terrace Mountain fire we're all worried about. It's over 7,000 hectares. The wind is pushing it south, this way. It's 0% contained still. Very steep terrain, hard for firefighters to get at. They brought in more firefighting crews from Ontario and Quebec because the BC crews are worn right out. We've already had 2200 fires this year -- the last record was 2003, when we had 859 fires. Quite a difference!!! And everybody remembers just how bad the Kelowna fire was that year, hundreds of homes were lost.
The budget is running tight too -- the government didn't realise how bad the fires would be this year and we've gone more than double over the budget. You know it costs $14,000 a day to run the big tanker helicoptors, not including fuel.
I've breathed in way more smoke in the last few weeks than I should have, my lungs aren't liking it and I know it's not good for the baby.

I imagine it will be some time before the Terrace Mountain fire is under control. Lillooet too -- very steep terrain, 0% contained. It's just a bad hot dry year, and too many dry thunderstorms.

[Cinder & Smoke]

We live in Glenrosa in West Kelowna (so does Jynnelle, Tikeyas_mom

I imagine it will be some time before the Terrace Mountain fire is under control.

Here's some links to BC Fire sites >>>

http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/Wild...ws/OneFire.asp

http://webmaps.gov.bc.ca/imf5/imf.jsp?site=pub_fireinfo
Click on the + symbol at the top of the map;
then click again near the southern BC border - the map will enlarge to
great detail.

[slick]

This picture was taken by a friend and coworker who works out of our branch office in Kelowna. The sun was going down.....

To give you an idea of proximity, Kelowna is about a 4.5 to 5 hour drive from me.

Kudos to an organization called Noah's Wish www.noahswish.org/. NW is comprised of volunteers who attend disasters and rescue animals in distress. NW volunteers are all over BC right now.

[Catty1]

Most recent update from Noah's Wish:

Wednesday August 5, 2009 2:00pm

The latest information available from the BC Forestry is that the burn off was successful yesterday. There is almost no fuel left between the hillside and the town, good news. However, the fire is still shown as 0 percent contained and all evacuation orders are still in affect.



Pam Legault, Princeton BC just returned home from a number of days at the shelter in Ashton and here is what she has to say about her experience:

I just got home last night (have to work to pay for volunteering). We had 43 dogs (8 of whom are 4 week old absolutely adorable Pit/Husky/Shepherd pups with the most wonderful "Poster Child" Pit mom), 83 cats and assorted birds, bunnies. All that we had were brought in by their owners or neighbors caring for them while folks were on vacation.

The people in Ashcroft where we evacuated to were/are more than wonderful!! We arrived at 1:30 a.m. with 3 haulers full of animals and 9 of us in cars, all filled to the brim and carrying nursing Mamas. I never heard a peep from either my Pit mama or the cat and her kittens. Around 8:30 a.m., the neighbors came to see what all the noise had been about and immediately started calling in volunteers to get the arena cooled down as much as possible, and to get anything we wanted; raided their thrift shop for more food/water dishes, blankets, sheets, towels, got us ice and coffee/tea/juice, muffins. When they heard we had all been up more than 24 hrs, they offered cool beds and showers, sandwiches and salads, as well as responsible dog walkers.

The dogs loved being able to be out for more than a few minutes for walks! Someone even brought a 9x9x9 pen to set up inside the arena so dogs could stretch a bit and have a wading pool! A "nearby" Kennel Club donated several ex-pens/ crates/blankets/quilts/dog bowls and water pails and we were able to put several cats and their kittens in the ex-pens (covered obviously) so Mamas could get away from their babies somewhat and the kittens could blow off some steam.

A link to the page that details their actions - these people are amazing, as are the communities!
http://www.noahswish.info/CurrentWatchesDeployments/

[Nomilynn]

Thank you for posting the Noah's Wish site. They were featured on the news last night. Apparently a 2 week old kitten was found - they are caring for it until one of the fire fighters is able to take it home

[phesina]

Prayers for all the living beings affected by these awful fires. I also lit a small candle (http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/...ng&cid=8926115) in hope this will soon be the only flame left.