After more than a week of stress and anxiety, most residents of Summerland, B.C., can return to their homes.
“It’s the news we’ve all been waiting for for the last week,” Mayor Doug Holmes told CBC’s Daybreak South.
The community of more than 12,000 was forced to flee after the Bald Range wildfire broke out on Aug. 7 and grew explosively, claiming the life of an 80-year-old woman.
Holmes said an evacuation order was lifted for 3,380 properties at 7 a.m. PT Tuesday, what he called “the majority of Summerland.”
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said in a Tuesday evening briefing that crews were aiming to open access to the rest of Summerland in the next few days.
Geotechnical and power work are being done, said Graham Statt, chief administrative officer of the District of Summerland.
“I can tell you we’re really working hard to have the remainder of the community open and with that [evacuation] order taken off by Thursday,” said Statt.
“We just think if we keep our shoulder into it, we should be able to have access to these areas.”
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Orders for a smaller number of properties were lifted over the weekend.
Relief for returning residents
Some Summerland residents can finally exhale.
“We … watched the fire come down behind our houses, and we thought we’d lost our house for sure,” said Jan Schumacher.
“It’s just been unbelievable to come home and find our houses intact. Very little damage. Very little.”
Jan Schumacher says she thought she lost her home to the flames — and was relieved to see it still standing. (Marc D’Amours/CBC)
Another returning resident, Cory Lee Myers, said the stress of not knowing whether her home was still standing was terrible.
“We’ve got a house, we’re fine,” said Myers, turning visibly emotional. “Everything’s fine and we get to go home.”
One of Myers’ first orders of business? Clearing out the fridge, as she said the power had been out for roughly 44 hours.
“Just be done with it — start fresh,” she said with a chuckle.
Cory Lee Myers says the burden of not knowing what happened to her home was terrible. (Marc D’Amours/CBC)
Rob Robinson, Summerland’s fire chief, said Herron Road in the Cartwright area of Summerland was one of the major battlegrounds in the fight against the wildfire.
“It was heroics by our guys and, I want to say, a little bit of luck,” he said.
“We lost a few homes, unfortunately, but you know what? We didn’t lose the downtown.”
Rob Robinson, fire chief of Summerland, said some houses were lost in the fire, but the downtown core was saved. (Marc D’Amours/CBC)
As of Tuesday, 530 properties remain under an evacuation order in the Garnet Valley, Prairie Valley and Meadow Valley.
All other Summerland residents remain under evacuation alert and must still be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
A map showing parts of the Summerland area that remain under evacuation orders and alerts as of Aug. 18. (District of Summerland)
Holmes said those areas remain unsafe until geotechnical experts can test slope stability above the communities, and that Garnet Valley remains without power.
“I know there was a lot of frustration, people waiting, I was feeling frustrated myself,” he said.
“But we had to do it properly, and orderly, and this is the big day.”
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A boil water advisory remains in place due to the community’s water treatment plant going offline during the evacuation.
The community’s landfill is also still on fire, meaning trash will need to be trucked to a facility operated by the regional district.
On Monday, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said an initial assessment found the fire had damaged or destroyed about 150 structures.
About 40 of those structures were within the municipality’s boundaries.
Holmes said people who had lost property were contacted by social workers and counsellors, and given the chance to see their homes before the order was lifted.
“We just thought it was really important that people were able to go and see their properties, that had lost their homes, before we opened it up to all of their neighbours,” he said.
As of Tuesday, the 220-square-kilometre fire remained classified as out of control.
Firefighters have successfully held the fire behind control lines on the southern and eastern flanks, and have turned their attention to the fire’s west side where it continues to show aggressive behaviour.