‘There was no good way to help them and myself at the same time’

Remy is a resident of Kamloops. In 2021 he was living in Juniper Ridge when a fire ignited near his home. Remy loves watching science fiction and fantasy movies, playing video games with his friends, and listening to music of all genres and eras: from MF DOOM to Duran Duran. For ten years, he played baseball in the springs and summers in Kamloops, pitching and playing third base. He collects comic books, loves film photography, and has a substantial vinyl record collection. In 2021 he was living in Juniper Ridge, a neighbourhood of Kamloops with his parents when a fire ignited near his home. 

It was a stormy night. There was no rain, but there’s a thunder and lightning storm. I looked at one of my friends’ stories on Snapchat and I saw them talking about a bunch of lightning hitting Juniper. One had actually started a fire.

As soon as I knew the fire was happening, I went and talked to my parents and said, “Hey, we should be cautious about this.” A couple of minutes later, we could see, from a distance, the smoke moving towards our house.

We decided to get things packed up and ready to go, in case we had to evacuate. My mom started grabbing important documents. My dad went outside in the back and started trying to water the grass and prevent anything from creeping towards our house. 

I was tasked with taking photos of all of the rooms in the house. In case anything were to happen, we would be able to show what we had so that we could make insurance claims on it. I also collected the cat and made sure she was safe and ready to go with us as well.

I heard some people yelling about the fire. I could smell the smoke. It smelled like trees burning, but it was thick and heavy. From my back deck, I could see the fire. The wind was blowing closer and closer toward our house.

I could hear people rushing their families to get out. I could hear sirens all around. There were tons of fire trucks heading towards our area because we were at a back access route to where the fire was happening. There was a large firefighter presence in the area. They were very, very keen to get us out of there as fast as possible.

I got asked a couple of times when we were leaving, if I had inhaled any smoke or if I needed any medical assistance. They were more worried about everybody who lived in the area’s safety than their own. 

When we were leaving, one of our neighbours was struggling to get themselves ready. I had a bit of time before we had to get out of there. So I went over to my neighbour’s house, helped them grab their things, and helped them load into their vehicle and get them out as well.

I didn’t feel great about having to see a bunch of my neighbours still packing their stuff, while we were getting out of there. I felt awful about that. I wanted to help them, but there was no good way to help them and myself at the same time.

We got out with everything, and we made our way up to my brother’s place in Sahali, away from Juniper. We spent a whole night there and pretty much a whole day, waiting for an all-clear to go back. 

After they had controlled it a bit and stopped it from moving towards where our house was, we were able to return. 

As soon as we stepped out of the vehicle, it hit me like a huge waft of air. I could smell a campfire immediately. I could smell the fire retardant. I could smell the burnt trees. It was a really heavy smell. Everything smelled like it was burning.

It wasn’t 100% put out. From my deck, I could see the area that was still kind of burning, and the little embers that were around. I could see a lot of tree damage throughout the forest behind us. Nothing in the way of property damage, thankfully. But there were a lot of embers flying through the sky.

The firefighters stuck around our house. They were using the fire hydrants around our neighbourhood and made sure the hoses were set up in case it picked back up again. We had the firefighters in our backyard checking in on us, making sure we were good.

There wasn’t much in the way of help that we didn’t get. But I feel like if they had opened up the secondary escape route out of Juniper through Rosehill, that would have been helpful. It would have made a lot more people not only able to get out quicker, but it would have given people peace of mind that they were not going to be in trouble in any situation. Eventually, somebody did break the lock that was on the gate. So more people were able to get out.

I now have a go bag ready in case anything like this happens again. It’s sitting in my closet right now. It’s a bag that’s got my passport and my important documents. It’s really easy for me to get some clothes in there and be ready to go when needed. I feel like a lot of people should prepare those things for just-in-case scenarios. I’ve noticed that a lot more people set up the tops of their roofs with sprinklers so that they can just turn them on and attempt to protect their houses a little bit better.

The wildfire made people scared for the rest of the summer. It put a damper on the summer for people wanting to do things in the neighbourhood. It would have been nice to have a neighbourhood support group so people could talk about it more and explain their side of things. Talk about their experiences, how they felt, and just be able to have that communication with other people.

I tried to talk with all of my neighbours about it and make sure that they were okay, seeing if they needed anything, even if it was just somebody to talk to. We do have a couple of neighbours that are older and their family lives far away and they’re living on their own. I wanted to make sure that if they needed any help with anything, I could be there for them.

It made me take a closer look at what was going on, not just in Kamloops itself, but around the whole world. It made me more aware of climate change as a whole and more conscious of what kind of humanity as a whole is doing to this world.

This story is a part of a series created by Thompson Rivers University students and led by instructor Jennifer Chrumka as part of the Climate Disaster Project.