The McDougall Creek fire is the most destructive event in the modern history of West Kelowna.
Hundreds of people have lost their homes to the fire, which started as a small wisp of smoke above the hills, and was burning homes two days later.
Here is a timeline of this historic event.
Tuesday, August 15, 2023 6 p.m.
The McDougall Creek wildfire was first spotted on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at approximately 6 p.m. and was listed at less than a hectare in size. The cause of the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The BC Wildfire Service attacked the fire with an initial attack team of four ground crew members and air support, including helicopters and air tankers.
Throughout Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, eighteen firefighters were working on what was still being described, at the time, as a small spot fire estimated at a half a hectare.
BCWS incident commander Brad Litke described the first hours of the firefight.
"There was an aggressive initial attack on this (fire), the main driver or the reason we saw extreme fire behaviour was due to a dry cold frontal passage. And with that came a lot of wind, as we all experienced, and were able to observe and no precipitation," he said.
BCWS had eyes on the fire but strong winds and low relative humidity set up conditions for the fire to spread quickly.
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
By noon Wednesday, the fire had grown to four hectares. At 5 p.m. it had ballooned to 32 hectares and was displaying rank three and four behaviour.
At 8 p.m., ash and burned debris started falling in West Kelowna. The fire had then doubled in size again and was listed by BCWS as a "fire of note."
BCWS would later explained that crews had to pull back during the afternoon due to aggressive fire behaviour.
At around 11 p.m., evacuation alerts were being issued for 4,800 properties in West Kelowna and on Westbank First Nation land.
Thursday, August 17, 2023
By Thursday morning, the fire had grown to 300 hectares and regional parks in West Kelowna were being closed due to fire risk.
West Kelowna Fire Rescue fire chief Jason Brolund warned in the morning that he expected evacuation orders would be issued as the fire was moving towards the city.
A news conference at 7 p.m. further warned the public that the fire would be extremely visible and threaten homes. Evacuation orders had already been issued at that point.
By 8 p.m., the fire was highly visible from the Kelowna waterfront and it had crested the ridge and was moving towards Traders Cove and West Kelowna Estates.
BCWS crews were forced to tactically evacuate off the hillside and down to the lower Bear Creek Forest Service Road and re-engaged the flames in the neighbourhoods along side structural teams.
A couple hours later, the fire had jumped Okanagan Lake and started burning in the Clifton and McKinley neighbourhoods. RCMP were conducting tactical evacuations in the same neighbourhoods.
In a live interview with Castanet that night, Kelowna fire chief Travis Whiting said the call had been put out to fire departments from across the Okanagan and beyond to help with the battle on both sides of the lake.
“We've put the call out and people are coming from wherever to add their support, and it's much appreciated. We're gonna need everything we got just to keep managing this,” he said shortly after midnight.
Kelowna fire crews set up their command centre on Union Road as they fought the fire through the night.
BCWS say they believe strong winds pushed the flames and burning embers across the lake.
"We have seen in the past on other fires that fires can spot well in advance, up to two kilometres. And so when we're building our fire smart plans and community wildfire protection plans, you know, that's one of the factors that we consider is a two-kilometre spread spotting radius," said Litke.
Friday, August 18, 2023
Overnight it became clear that homes had been lost of the west side of Okanagan Lake and upwards of 20,000 people were evacuated from their homes. A third fire was also burning in Lake Country.
As of 11 a.m. Friday morning, images of the destruction left by the wildfire were starting to surface and West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund said in a hastily called press conference that Thursday night was “one of the most challenging nights of firefighting in our history." "
"100 years of firefighting all at once" and "a fire chief's worst nightmare," he further described it.
The Kelowna International Airport was closed Friday because BCWS air support needed the airspace around the airport and the provincial government had declared a provincial state of emergency.
On Friday afternoon the wind shifted and started blowing the fire back towards West Kelowna and Castanet's Nich Johansen captured homes going up in flames live in West Kelowna Estates.
"In and amongst the smoke I've seen half a dozen maybe ten homes fully engulfed in flames," Johansen reported.
Evacuation orders continued Friday and into the weekend while firefighting reinforcements began to get a handle on the wildfires on the east side of Okanagan Lake.
That's when the heavy smoke began to blanket the Central Okanagan. That shrouded the fire's activity and the destruction it caused, but also brought cooler temperatures and light winds.
Saturday, August 19, 2023
Firefighters from across the province poured into West Kelowna to help battle the fire.
“We are an army out there," said West Kelowna fire chief Jason Brolund, referring to 127 structural firefighters and 41 firetrucks working in the community.
Brolund also announced that day that crews had saved the $75-million Rose Valley water treatment plant, "we were not going to let it burn down."
The provincial government put in place an accommodation travel ban for a number of B.C. Interior communities to free up hotel rooms for evacuees.
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Canada Task Force 1 arrived in West Kelowna and started counting damaged properties.
There were close to 500 firefighters now battling the fire and crews were finally starting to make progress.
"We're now four days in. It feels like months, but things are looking better,” said West Kelowna fire chief Jason Brolund, who said they had not lost any homes in the past 24 hours.
Attention finally turned to getting people back into their homes, but it was still far too soon. “There are a million points of fire still out there across our community," Brolund added.
Monday, August 21, 2023
At the start of the week, the focus had shifted to helping evacuees dealing with long wait times and an inability to register for evacuation support.
Initial damage figures started to be revealed, with an first estimate of 50 homes lost in West Kelowna and on WFN lands. The public learned that Traders Cove was the hardest-hit community, in addition to the completely destroyed Lake Okanagan Resort.
The first evacuation orders started to be lifted.
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Premier David Eby flew into the Okanagan for a tour where he saw the devastation firsthand.
“This is such an awful time for so many people. I want to reassure people that I find it unacceptable that any person has to wait to get into a hotel to get the support they've needed,” Eby said during a news conference, while pledging provincial support in clearing the backlog of evacuees.
The public also learned more details damage estimates, when authorities said fewer than 190 properties were damaged. That ended up being a close estimate, with the final number landing on 189 days later.
The smoke finally lifted, giving residents a look at the destruction left behind by the fire.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Property owners were given the ability to look up their homes and see if they were damaged or lost to the fire.
Thursday, August 24, 2023
It was revealed the Wilson's Landing Fire Department saw 13 members lose their homes in the fire.
“It was a violent event, the world shattered," described fire chief Paul Zydowicz when talking about the fight against the fire in Traders Cove.
The last portion of the accommodation, impacting West Kelowna, was lifted by the provincial government.
All evacuation orders in Kelowna lifted.
Friday, August 25, 2023
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in the region to meet with leaders. At a news conference for national media that excluded many local outlets, including Castanet, Trudeau did his best to reassure rattled nerves.
“We will be there to make sure we're not just learning the lessons that we're taking through these very difficult moments, but we're applying the lessons and that we're actually increasing our resources and our ability to keep people safe going forward," he said.
Saturday, August 26, 2023
The last of the evacuation orders in Lake Country are lifted.
