Viewpoint: Actions by Shuswap first responders prevent human loss to firestorm

By Jim Cooperman

Special to the Observer

At 8:30 p.m., just three hours after the 10-kilometre long “controlled” burn was lit by an aerial ignition on Aug. 17, a crew from the local volunteer fire department drove up the 670 Scotch Creek logging road to see that the fire was already nearing the creek and was too dangerous to fight.

One hour later they were at Meadow Creek and saw how the fire had jumped across the valley.

They proceeded to warn residents and called for an evacuation order.

They retreated east to a field and phoned the BC Wildfire Service, who did not arrive until early in the morning when it was too late to control what was, by then, an enormous fire.

The next day, during the daily 11 a.m. to noon briefing with the BC Wildfire Service, Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue (SVSAR) manager Gord Bose, along with two other managers, sensed an evacuation order was imminent and began making the preparations needed in case the order was called.

Once an order is called, SVSAR’s role is to go door-to-door and urge residents to leave, using a list of addresses to keep track of everyone. If residents chose to stay, then police are notified.

Two SVARS boats were set into the water at the Shuswap Marina near Sorrento, one from Salmon Arm and one from Vernon. Two more boats arrived from the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue and the Kamloops Search and Rescue team was also notified.

The main role for these boats is normally to evacuate the search and rescue teams if they are not able to leave by vehicle.

When the order was finally called at 2:16 p.m., two SVSAR trucks made it into the Scotch Creek Fire Hall where they intended to set up their command centre, while trucks arriving later had to turn around because by then the road was closed.

Gord and his team then drove to the marina where they launched the boats. At 4 p.m., the fire was in Scotch Creek, so they had to move the command centre to the provincial park boat launch.

Gord brought three E-bikes on the boat, which were used along with a truck lent to them by a resident to go door-to-door to warn residents, who now had to evacuate to Seymour Arm.

By 5 p.m., it was apparent some residents were not able to drive to Seymour Arm due to the raging fire in Celista, and thus they used the boats to evacuate them across the lake where buses were waiting to take them to Salmon Arm.

Evacuation by boat was extremely challenging due to the poor visibility and the significant wave action from the high winds pushing the fire towards communities.

In total, approximately 25 people, including seniors and children, and also dogs were evacuated by Search and Rescue teams using boats.

Read more: VIEWPOINT: North Shuswap residents heroes after the firestorm

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Thankfully, one valued member of the community who is in a wheelchair, small-engine mechanic Charlie Finkhuber, had a guardian angel that fateful day. Close friend and local contractor Howie Schuchster was working in Magna Bay and had no idea about the raging fire in the hills that was moving quickly toward the lake. When he d id find out, he raced to Scotch Creek to check on Charlie.

By that time the road out was closed, so he phoned Search and Rescue who took their boat to Hilliam Road, where four team members picked up Charlie in his wheelchair and set him in the boat and took them across the lake.

In Celista, the situation was even more critical than in Scotch Creek. Volunteer firefighters with the Celista Fire Department were well aware of the threats posed by the firestorm, and urged the Columbia Shuswap Regional District to issue an evacuation order, but the BC Wildfire Service was not responding to calls.

Early in the afternoon of the 18th, the firefighters began going door-to-door urging people to leave, even using a bullhorn to warn residents.

By 2:30 pm, some were busy defending the school from the approaching flames, while others were watering the bridges in Talana Bay and Celista.

It was not until 4:13 p.m. that the evacuation order was given and by that time many homes had burned.

There are many other harrowing evacuation stories, including that of 90-year-old former provincial park superintendent Phil Rathbone, who had no notification about the fire and drove into Scotch Creek to find the fire racing across the Roane’s field. He then went above his property, where he found his neighbours fighting the fire and, thanks to them, many homes were saved including his own.