The dangerous wildfires in the Cariboo can be very terrifying and affect everybody.
Since I didn’t live here in 2017 when the fires were really bad and many people had to evacuate, I didn’t know what it was like to have fires surrounding you so close and how stressful it can be.
About a month ago there was a bad fire at Moose Valley which you could see from my house. The plume of the dark grey smoke came from over the trees. At night you could see the glow of the fire from the tree line reflecting onto the clouds in the sky. I had never seen anything like that in my life.
This is a picture I took of the fire and the glow it had created on the clouds.
I never grew up with wildfires, so this experience was interesting although frightening. As it got closer and bigger, we were on evacuation alert. We packed bags with clothing and valuable items just in case we had to evacuate. It was so difficult to figure out what to pack between my favourite clothes, old stuffies or important jewelry. We were lucky that we had places to go if we did need to leave the area.
It seems to me that when the fires first started, the water bomber planes we not on it right away which is why it might have gotten so out of control. By the time we, as well as some of 108 Mile Ranch were on evacuation alert, the fire was so out of control they finally brought in the bombers and the fire retardant planes. About time!
One day the water bomber planes were circling around our house picking up water from Lac La Hache Lake as they went by, then going to dump it on the fire. They did that over and over for about four hours all day. The planes were so close to the house and the sound was so loud it made me think about what a war might have sounded like!
This was one of the five water bombers that was flying laps around our house!
According to BC Wildfire Service, there are about 400 wildfires burning across B.C. as of Aug. 10.
The biggest wildfire currently burning in B.C. is the Battleship Mountain wildfire, approximately 12 or 13 kilometres from Hundson’s Hope.
Overall I'm glad that this year's fire season seems to be coming to an end in our area and I hope that next year we don't have fires so close to our homes.
