North Shuswap firestorm 2023

By Jim Cooperman

Our home the night of the fire, photo by Angie Laryea

During the firestorm, a brave neighbour drove up the road to check on our place and took an amazing photo above of the hillside behind our home ablaze, yet the fire never went past the area that had been watered. This successful protection of our home should serve as a prime example of why everyone who lives in rural areas needs to do fire proofing to protect their homes.

A photo of our house the day after the fire

August 21, 2023

A fire caused by lightning started above the west side of Adams Lake on July 12th, grew slowly then initially exploded on July 20th due to a windstorm. Early in August, it moved down the hillside and if not for a huge effort by firefighters it would have destroyed homes and cabins along the lake. The fire continued to grow due to the winds and edged further southeast towards the North Shuswap community of Lee Creek, in the North Shuswap. By the third week of August it was about 6 km away from properties. When the weather report indicated that a strong northerly windstorm would hit on the evening of August 17th, the BC Wildfire Service made the extremely risky decision to use a controlled burn (a backburn) to reduce the fuel load in front of the fire.

They lit the backburn using a helicopter and ping-pong balls filled with sodium nitrate and anti-freeze. It was a massive fire that produced a giant mushroom cloud of smoke above the hills above our home. The next day the strong winds blew the combined fire down to Lee Creek, Scotch Creek and Celista, destroying approximately 100 homes, cabins, and businesses.

A view from our house of the initial smoke from the backburn moments after it was lit, photo by Kathi Cooperman

Another photo of the backburn minutes after it was lit, photo by Jim Cooperman

The fire also combined with another fire on east side of Adams Lake below the lake creating a firestorm that blew into Squilax, forcing the evacuation of the fire camp in a field and then destroying a gas station, homes and many cabins. It jumped across the Little Shuswap River and then destroyed homes north and south of the Squilax Bridge before moving up Squilax Mountain, east to the hills above Sorrento and south into Turtle Valley. This end of the fire continues to threaten the South Shuswap, Skimikin, Sorrento and as far away as Tappen.

This fire remains an ongoing disaster as there are spot fires everywhere and the fire is continuing to advance slowly eastward. Here are my notes for a number of recent media interviews:

1. BCWS is ultimately responsible for the mess.

2. Did not adequately respond to the fire when it began.

3. Response waited until it grew and nearly burned houses at Adams Lake.

4. In a drought, fires are nearly impossible to put out or stop.

5. The backburn backfired – it was lit too far from the fire and too late as the northerly windstorm was only hours away – it increased the fire size and then it blew across Scotch Creek and into the hills above Celista – plus the fire creeped through the Lee Creek canyon underneath the powerline.

6. The evacuation order came too late. We could see the fire creeping over the ridge behind us and were told the fire was at Scotch Creek so we left one hour before the order was given. As a result, people were trapped in east of the Scotch Creek bridge because the fire was on both sides of the road to the west. Some escaped by boat or drove east for 40 km on a logging road to Seymour Arm and then some drove in a convoy for another 50 km on a rough road to Malakwa. There were at least 500 people in Seymour Arm that night.

7. Currently, it is primarily locals that are fighting the spot fires. Nonetheless, one of our friend’s homes burned down yesterday from a spot fire that no one was able to get to. The local firefighters are loggers and contractors with trucks, water tanks and shovels, working day and night to protect their homes and their neighbour’s homes. They are the real heroes. In addition, there are some fire trucks from all over the province lending a hand. There were three fire trucks in our yard helping –  from Vancouver Island, Big White and Scotch Creek.

8. Despite the heroic efforts of the locals, the authorities are doing everything they can to stop them. They have brought police up from Vancouver to man checkpoints and stop people from driving in or driving through the community.

9. Our Regional District director is one of the local heroes, as he has also defied the rules and remained to help, even working to fight a fire in his community. Yesterday, he was stopped by the police for trying to transport food from a boat to a restaurant where it was to be distributed for free to the locals.

10. Due to the roadblocks, locals have been using boats to get in and out and to bring in supplies. Our resilient community has come together in this emergency and will emerge stronger when it is over. Currently, because the police are blocking efforts to bring in supplies, residents are sharing the food from their thawing freezers. Two local restaurants are providing free meals.

11. The overall problem is that both the provincial and federal government has misplaced priorities, as it continues to fund oil and gas infrastructure to the tune of billions of dollars, rather than investing in the tools and manpower the country needs to respond to the climate boiling emergency we are faced with. We need fleets of water bombers instead of 30-billion-dollar pipeline.

A photo of me working on the spot fire near our home

I was able to return to my property the day after the fire swept through and with the help of a young WWOOFer from Germany, we began working on a spot fire that could have burned down our pump house and/or lit the remaining forest on fire and burned down a neighbour’s house. We used buckets from our pond initially, until a fire department truck arrived. It was doused multiple times and it kept coming back, because it was burning underground in tree roots. One of the many locals with a truck and water tank also came to help. When we finally left near dark, there was another fire truck dousing it. Then late that night it blew up again and the local returned to water it down. This example shows how difficult it is to deal with spot fires, that could continue for months.

A fire department crew from Vancouver Island again working on our spot fire at the end of the day. This fire continue to flare up for days afterwards and was again doused by both local and fire department fire fighters.

The main news story yesterday that continues today is that equipment used to keep a key bridge watered down was either stolen or “borrowed.” They use this story continuously to justify the heavy police lockdown, yet there many doubts about this story, because no one ever saw the equipment missing. The fire had swept by the area during the Friday night firestorm and there was no longer any threat to the bridge as there were no nearby spot fires and yet they continued to water the bridge. As well, the equipment being used is extremely heavy and would not be easy to take away.

“Because of the road blockades and spike belts, the only way in and out is by boat. Many dozens  of boat owners have been volunteering their time to ferry people and supplies back and forth from the south shore to the north shore from marinas in Blind Bay and Sorrento and from private docks. Yet now police and conservation officers are out on the lake halting and chasing these boats, with the aid of police on shore using binoculars. As well, police have shown up at the marinas to block this effort.”

Because of the road blockades and spike belts, the only way in and out is by boat. Many dozens  of boat owners have been volunteering their time to ferry people and supplies back and forth from the south shore to the north shore from marinas in Blind Bay and Sorrento and from private docks. Yet now police and conservation officers are out on the lake halting and chasing these boats, with the aid of police on shore using binoculars. As well, police have shown up at the marinas to block this effort.

The reason our home was saved is due to the fire smart work we have done over the past few years. We selectively logged our property, leaving most of the largest trees and near our home we removed most of the conifer trees. Knowing how dangerous decorative junipers are, we removed all the ones that posed a threat. On the day before the firestorm, we thoroughly watered the hillside behind our house, as that is where the fire would come from as lawns cover the yard in front of our house.

Here is a CBC Kamloops Daybreak interview from August 21 and 22:

Interview with me – Listen and watch

IMAGES OF THE DESTRUCTION IN THE COMMUNITY OF SCOTCH CREEK:

A BC Wildfire Service map of the fire showing the evacuation order and alert zones as of August 20, 2023:

About The Author

Jim Cooperman

Author of the local best seller, Everything Shuswap, Jim Cooperman moved to the Shuswap in 1969 as a war resister and a back-to-the-lander, after receiving his BA from the University of California at Berkeley. Over the succeeding years, Jim taught school, worked in construction and log building, operated a sawmill, and edited a provincial environmental journal, the BC Environmental Report. His local environmental work led to the protection of over 25,000 hectares of new parks in the Shuswap, which is documented in the book, Big Trees Saved, by Deanna Kawatski. He has researched and written about local history and helped initiate and edit the local history journal, Shuswap Chronicles I and II. In 1993, he wrote the Chapter on Canada in Clearcut – The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. And in 1998, he wrote Keeping the Special in Special Management Zones, A Citizens’ Guide, published by BC Spaces for Nature. Jim lives with his wife, Kathleen, in a log home they built on 40 acres above Shuswap Lake, where they raised five children. His column, “Shuswap Passion,” appears every two weeks in either the Shuswap Market News or the Salmon Arm Observer. Additionally, his YouTube channel has over 100 videos, including many that showcase live music, skiing and Shuswap geography.

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