'Everyone just started running': evacuee describes rapid spread of B.C. wildfire
A B.C. man affected by the Downton Lake wildfire northwest of Whistler says he and a few of his neighbours dodged the fast-moving flames in the nick of time on Tuesday.
"It was very sudden," said Paul Kennea who was checking on his cabin at Gun Lake, just north of Whistler, B.C., on Tuesday when the wind picked up, and the nearby wildfire spread swiftly.
"This wind came through that I've never experienced in my life. It was like heat, and a whirlwind, and a tornado all mixed into one. They were giant branches flying through the air ... and it really suddenly got quite hard to breathe," Kennea said.
Kennea had moved his family out of their cabin on Gun Lake Monday evening, although there was no evacuation order in place at the time.
The Downton Lake wildfire sparked on July 13, and had slowly made its way through steep, wooded terrain at the western end of Gun Lake, northwest of Whistler, B.C., before it flared up aggressively on Monday.
Kennea had returned to his property to check whether his family's makeshift fire suppression system was working, to turn on the sprinklers, and to retrieve a few priceless family possessions.
He ran into a few neighbours while he was there and at first, he said, the fire was simply a glow in the distance.
But in less than 90 minutes, the situation changed drastically.
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'Started running'
"We all kind of looked at each other, and then this wind literally blew us off our feet again and the fire was right there and everyone just started running," Kennea said.
The group jumped in Kennea's truck, and as they stopped to check that another friend had left his property, Kennea said they saw deer running out of the woods to escape the flames.
Kennea said that if the group of neighbours had waited another 10 minutes, they may have had to swim out of the fire's reach.
An evacuation order was issued later Tuesday for the more than 200 properties surrounding the lake and quickly upgraded to critical. Residents have been told to leave for Lillooet or Whistler, which is about 110-km away.
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District says all properties in the Gun Lake and Lajoie Lake areas are on evacuation order due to the Downton Creek fire, with more properties in the surrounding area on evacuation alert. (Squamish-Lillooet Regional District)
The fire has destroyed at least five properties around the lake, although officials haven't been able to access the area to fully assess the extent of the damage.
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'It devoured everything'
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District says that while many of the properties in the region are recreational cabins, there are people who live there year-round.
Kennea had a webcam set up at the end of his driveway and was able to watch as the fire blazed through the area.
"In the space of 14 minutes it devoured everything, and you can see my Starlink there starting to blister. So I was like, well either the Starlink is just burned and the power is gone, or the house is gone," he said about his satellite Internet receiver.
On Wednesday, Kennea learned his cabin had survived — something he attributes to the sprinklers he set up to try and keep the flames at bay.
Kennea and his family bought their property just over a year ago. Some of his neighbours' cabins, however, have been passed down through their families for generations.
The B.C. Wildfire Service said the fire's rapid movement was driven by wind.
Officials say the underlying hot, dry conditions across most of B.C., combined with rapidly changing winds, mean anyone near wildfires should be prepared to leave at a moment's notice should an evacuation order be put into place.
"This is definitely an evolving situation, very dynamic," said fire information officer Aydan Coray.
"We are expecting the next two days, in particular, to show .. continued warming and drying trends, no real reprieve in terms of precipitation or slowing winds."
The Downton Lake fire is one of 353 fires currently burning in B.C.'s worst wildfire season on record. Thirteen of those fires are considered wildfires of note.
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Thumbnail courtesy of Dr. Renata Lewis
This article was originally published for CBC News.
