The wildfire season roared in to my town, with 4 fires in a week!
First a house fire less than a km from me. In the city this would be no big deal, but in a small mountain town where everyone lives in the forest practically its a huge issue!
It was a beautiful if a bit too hot day and i was enjoying the view and cold drink on my deck. As I got up to replenish my ice, I saw a huge plume of smoke above the hill behind me, OMG!
Then I heard the sirens, and watched as 1,2, 3, firetrucks roared past. Then an ambulance, then another fire truck…
I didn’t want to drive to check it out – there is only one road in and out and I didn’t need to be a problem but I did hop on my bike and proceeded up the hill.
The good news is it was a house fire – good because the firefighters in town are trained to fight house fires, and they are easy to access.
Bad news is it’s a house fire in the heavily forested part of the neighbourhood – it could set the entire area on fire!
The BC Wildfire Service was called into action to drop fire retardant and drop some water buckets.
The neighbourhood was evacuated and in the end the house was toast but no one was injured, and everyone got to go home that evening.
What a crazy initiation to “wildfire” season.