Homeowner who spent years building off-grid cabin loses 'everything' in Keremeos Creek wildfire

Les Murzsa says he spent more than a decade focusing his time and savings on building the off-grid home he'd hoped to own for most of his adult life.

One project at a time, he renovated the wooden cabin at the south end of Green Mountain Road, near Keremeos, B.C., until there was only one job left: finishing up the new roof.

Murzsa was in the process of installing the last shingles when a wildfire swept through the area and destroyed the entire house on Friday, leaving its owner with nothing but a pile of ash.

"My house burned so thoroughly and completely, there is literally six inches of dust on the ground. It's completely gone," said Mursza, 50. 

"I could clean up my house with a rake."

Mursza, who escaped and drove to a hotel, is the only person so far who has lost their home in what's known as the Keremeos Creek wildfire. The blaze, burning about 21 kilometres to the southwest of Penticton, is still estimated at almost 28 square kilometres in size — an area six times the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park. 

Mursza says he smelled the fire before he saw it on Friday.

"I opened my window for some fresh air and I immediately smelled smoke. I thought that was a really bad sign on a hot, sunny day at 40 degrees, so I looked out my window and I could see the start of the fire. It was just a small, maybe five-acre fire with a bit of white smoke," he said, speaking in an interview from the hotel where he's stayed since losing his home.

"The winds picked up and, unfortunately, the fire just started heading straight toward my area. Eventually, it started to creep down toward the road and it was directly across the street from my house. 

"Ashes just started raining all over my property and firefighters came and told me to get out of the area and shortly after that, my house burned to the ground."

Mursza said he packed important paperwork, a few clothes, his favourite guitars and harmonica collection into his car and fled before flames reached his property. Everything else was lost, he said.

The house and its contents weren't insured because of the building's remote location, near the foot of Apex Mountain, he added.

Mursza has stayed in a hotel since Friday, with the cost covered by Emergency Services B.C. In a few days, he'll move to a friend's home until he figures out his next move.

"People have been calling me, people I haven't heard from for 30 years," he said. "The support has been really nice."