Through doorbell cameras and telescopes, West Kelowna residents witnessed their homes burn
CBC
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When Chris Erickson left his West Kelowna home Thursday as wildfire approached, he made sure to take all the proper steps, shutting off the gas, water and electricity. He did not think it would be the last time he would see his house.
The next day he saw a photo of his home in the Rose Valley neighbourhood in a local newspaper.
"You see just huge flames up in the trees, and at the bottom of the photo, you could see the roof of our house," he said.
Sadly, Erickson's home is among those destroyed by the McDougall Creek wildfire.
A neighbour later sent him footage from a doorbell camera that confirmed the damage.
"It's quite the experience witnessing your house engulfed in flames before it collapses in on itself," he said from a hotel room in Merritt, B.C. "Watching that is hard."
For residents of West Kelowna and other B.C. communities ravaged by wildfire, reality is starting to set in.
B. C. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Monday there are about 27,000 people in the province under an evacuation order due to ongoing wildfires, with another 35,000 people under alert to evacuate on short notice.
Early estimates suggest wildfires burning on both sides of Okanagan Lake have destroyed almost 60 structures in the Kelowna area, officials said Monday.
Fire chiefs from West Kelowna, Kelowna and Lake Country said homes have been destroyed in their communities, with West Kelowna sustaining the most losses and higher numbers still expected.
Heiko Birkefeld learned about his Rose Valley home Saturday after finding someone had set up a telescope to see what was going on in the neighbourhood.
"When I was looking to find the property, I found it, and when I saw it, it was still smoking," Birkefeld said.
He said he later saw footage shot from a helicopter that showed the smouldering remains of his home.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.