Former Local Man Has House Spared in
Huge B.C. Fires

Provost resident Bill Carter holds up a Kelowna Courier newspaper photo showing the blaze that somehow spared his son John’s house. The circled part (left) shows where John Carter and his wife Carolyn’s house is located and the view they saw across a lake through binoculars. ©Provost News Photo.

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A former Hayter man and his wife Carolyn had their house spared by raging forest fires at Kelowna, B.C. while other homes nearby were destroyed.

John Carter has lived at a new development in Kelowna since 1998 and said in a telephone interview with The Provost News from that house in B.C. that when they could feel the heat on their faces the situation became “scary.”

He said that on their street five houses were taken by the flames. A lot of other houses near them also were damaged as well. Anything that had wood, such as verandas or wooden shingles caught fire.

The 44 year old man said that when they first saw fire farther away they were not too concerned because of the materials their house was made out of—and because much of the area near them had been cleared out of trees. In fact, he says, the area reminded him of Provost yet it is 15 minutes to downtown Kelowna and the edge of the forest is only a half block away.

Flames began coming down a large hill on August 21 and there was a fire guard in place and a clearing also prepared—“but the fire started coming and we were out in the street . . . all of a sudden we realized this is serious.” Carter got a few papers, pictures and his computer out of the house and then he and others began to feel heat on their faces. “I had the car running and sort of stood there in awe watching the fire. The big thing was the sound. It was like standing beside a freight train.”

He adds that the front of the approaching fire was probably as far as the eye could see, maybe five kilometers wide. They decided they were no longer safe so took off in their car but a half block from home they were in traffic gridlock. “That scared us” yet others in traffic were not yet taking the situation very seriously. The police then arrived to help move traffic. Carter thinks that traffic situation is what also scared police and officials because that evening 5,000 houses were ordered evacuated.

In the next couple of days firefighters lost complete control of the fires and over Carter’s community rolled flames between 200 and 300 feet tall—igniting fires behind the firefighters. “Senior firefighters were terrified. They had never seen something like that.”

Others came and saved some houses and Carter said that at his in-laws place across Lake Okanagan he could see his street through binoculars. Houses were going up in flames and were incinerated in 15 to 20 minutes. Carter could not see his own house and could only assume it was still standing. Neighbours were calling him and asking what he could make out from his vantage point with the binoculars.

Carter thinks some houses including his own were saved because he and others left garden hoses attached to outlets and left fire extinguishers out on the street. Nobody thought they (the firefighters) would use such a thing) but they did he said.

Full story in September 17 edition of The Provost News.
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