Long-time friends of my mother-in-law retired a few years ago to Kelowna, B.C. They’re outdoorsy people and picked that spot in the Okanagan Valley to be near the parks, vineyards and mountains. Last week, the encroaching wildfires turned their lives upside down. All 40,000 residents of Kelowna were told to evacuate, so my mother-in-law’s friends drove seven hours and moved into their son’s place on the B.C.-Alberta border. Bunking in with their kid is not how they pictured their retirement. The fires that began northwest of Kelowna are leaving catastrophic destruction in their wake. Big chunks of the city have been incinerated.
What’s it like to evacuate in a speedy terror? Bonnie and Don Sherwin, long-time residents of West Kelowna, evacuated their home in the city’s Rose Valley neighbourhood in a hurry after first responders warned them they needed to leave. Like my mother-in-law’s friends, they reached out to their adult child for refuge and headed to Chilliwack, three hours away. We asked Bonnie to describe her experience for us. “It was so hot from the fires, we could hardly breathe,” she says in this Q&A for Maclean’s. “Emergency workers came and told me I needed to leave immediately. I didn’t even have time to gather the food I’d planned on taking out of the fridge and freezer—that’s how fast it was. That puts you into panic mode.”
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
