KELOWNA, B.C. — The flames were on the west side of the Okanagan Lake and their neighbourhood in Kelowna was smoky, but still safe, when former Estevan resident Kim Barnstable, who was in Red Deer at the time, hung up after talking to his wife Karen at around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 17.
"When I spoke with her, even though this fire was huge and very daunting, it was on the other side of the lake, so I just signed off with her and said, 'Are you okay?' She said, 'Yeah, the fire's on the other side of the lake. It's huge, but I feel safe, probably won't sleep very well,'" Kim shared in an interview with the Mercury and Â鶹ÊÓƵ.
Five minutes later, the phone rang again. It was one of their neighbours.
"He said, 'Is your wife home?' And I said, 'Yeah.' He says, 'You have to get her out of here right now because the fire's crossed the lake,'" Kim recalled.
Okanagan Lake is big, but temperatures that were in the high 30s C that week dried up a lot of fuel, and a really strong wind on the Thursday was picking up ambers and blowing them from the west side across and over to Kelowna. One landed below the Barnstables' house in a subdivision sitting on top of the hill.
Having recent experiences with fires earlier this summer and before, the Barnstables, like many others in Kelowna, were "semi-ready" to leave their homes in a hurry in case of emergency. However, Kim noted that people are always less ready than they should be.
"These things happen in a hurry. You don't have much time. You really got to be ready to move and move quickly," Kim said. "We've been on a fire evacuation alert before, maybe five years ago. So, it makes you realize, okay, I want to be prepared. Having said that, you're never as prepared as you should be.
"There are certain things like photo albums, your passports, your computers, those things you want to try and get into your vehicle as quickly as you can. Insurance papers. Clothing is secondary, but you try and get the things that you really need.
"We have a lot of people in the area that have those at the ready somewhere close, where it's a grab-and-go. So, we were semi-prepared, but I think you always think you have a little more time than what we had, which was literally minutes."
Karen started packing up some essentials, but the fire appeared to be moving faster than one could have expected.
"My neighbour phoned again and said, 'You have to get her out now, this fire is climbing the hill. It's going to be here in no time.' And at this point, we still hadn't had any evacuation notice, that's how quickly this thing was moving. So, I phoned her back and said, 'Look, don't look for anything else. Just get in your vehicle and go.' And while I was talking to her, a policeman at the door said, 'You have to move now. Don't take any more time. I can't stress the urgency of you leaving right now,'" Kim recollected.
Karen got out of the house, got in a vehicle and tried leaving the area. However, with everyone being in the same situation, the traffic was too heavy to be able to evacuate quickly.
"It was bumper to bumper, and you could see this fire coming over the hill and cresting and coming down. As she was driving out, it was to the left side of the car to the point where my other neighbour told his wife, 'If this gets much closer, we're just going to get out and run.'"
As everyone was leaving and trying to coordinate their actions, the cell reception was bad as well, Kim said, which added to the stress level.
Eventually, Karen was able to make it to their son's place in a safe area of Kelowna, and Kim drove back the next morning after a sleepless night of worrying, feeling "totally helpless" and wondering what was left of their place.
"I met tons of cars lined up leaving the Okanagan. By the time we got into Kelowna, it was Friday [Aug. 18] afternoon," Kim said. "And Friday night, I went out to look, as close as I could, and saw a number of fires just underneath where we live, to the point where it was very disheartening. I was thinking we've maybe lost our house at that point."
The Barnstables couldn't see it yet, but the firefighters were able to hold the line. Neighbours with surveillance cameras shared that they could see firefighters in their backyards and on their patios, pushing the flames back away from the development.
"The firefighters did an amazing job, they basically just dug in and stood there and fought the flames back. There's been a response from I think 40-some fire departments that have come to the aid," Kim said.
"It was crazy.
"We're into Wednesday now [Aug. 23]. We still haven't got back to our home. We are confident that our house is still standing, but we have no idea when we're going to get back or what we'll find when we get back. The firemen put sprinklers on the houses and did some things to mitigate the fire. At this point, I don't know when we're going to get back, hopefully, it's soon. But we are in a good position because my son's place is not that far away, and we're able to move around. We just can't get home."
The Barnstables are among those who were able to stay in Kelowna, but the city was nearly half-abandoned over these days of emergency, Kim said.
"Saturday and Sunday here, the smoke was so dense and just choking everybody down, and it seemed very eerie. Okanagan, Kelowna in the summer are very busy. It was not busy at all. Some of the restaurants were closed. Some of the coffee shops were closed. Very little traffic in town. It was an atmosphere of everybody having that fear of not knowing what was next," Kim shared.
"We felt like the fires were fairly much under control at that time. But when the smoke is so thick, you can't really tell what's happening. So, today being Wednesday [Aug. 23], things have calmed down and are a little more normal. The skies have cleared up. We had some rain last night so the visibility now is better. And everybody feels a little more confident and comfortable, but there's still a lot of people that aren't back to their homes."
Kim was scheduled to fly out to Saskatchewan on Aug. 24 to help his family in Estevan with harvest, but there have been no flights in and out of Kelowna.
"I'm not sure when I'm going to get there, because I just don't know when they'll be flying again," Kim said.
In the meantime, he said they've had many check-up calls from people in B.C. and southeast Saskatchewan and were grateful for the support.
"We have had overwhelming support, interest and concern from friends here and back in the Estevan area. I know other people who have properties here and live here that used to be in the Estevan area. And it's been very comforting to have everybody reach out," Kim said.
"We're happy to tell everybody, we're safe. These raging wildfires and this one in particular are definitely something that you don't want to go through very often."
