New study to help Lytton-area Indigenous community rebuild with climate resilience after fire
Global News
Six months later, the Kanaka Bar is preparing to rebuild but this time Chief Patrick Michell says he wants to be sure that homes can withstand all kinds of extreme weather events.
For 25 years, Chief Patrick Michell’s home in Kanaka Bar, B.C., was a gathering place for his large extended family. It’s where his wife passed down teachings to their children and grandchildren and where so many family members came together for celebrations and birthdays. The home, like so many others in the area, was always filled with love.
Until one day, under a scorching summer sun last June, it was gone.
“We had just experienced an incredible extreme weather event and we shall call it heat, we shall call it wind, and we shall call it drought,” the Kanaka Bar Indian Band chief recalled, thinking back to the events of June 30, 2021.
“My wife texted me, she said she just received a call, ‘Lytton’s on fire,’ and another minute later, ‘Our reserve is on fire,’ and I ran out the door.”
Michell remembers finding his wife, pregnant daughter and three grandchildren standing on the road, in shock. His entire community was destroyed by the wildfire.
“The fire jumped from home to home to home willy-nilly. One of my friends described it as a dragon. He stood on Main Street, the fire started — a house on fire, and a minute later another house 10 or 15 feet away burst into flames, then it jumped up and around, so the fire was dancing.”
The fire that wiped out Kanaka Bar and the village of Lytton came during a record heat wave when the temperature reached 49.6 C in Lytton, shattering a Canadian heat record.
Six months later, Kanaka Bar is preparing to rebuild but this time Michell says he wants to be sure that homes can withstand not only future fires but all kinds of extreme weather events as well.