Communities still recovering one year after worst fire season on record in B.C.
CACHE CREEK, B.C. — Communities are still recovering from British Columbia’s worst wildfire season on record, one year after a fateful two-day period in July 2017 that sparked more than 100 fires and prompted the province to declare a state of emergency.
Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta remembers a fire breaking out on July 6 near the Ashcroft First Nation and sweeping across the countryside the following day, as strong winds propelled it from the horizon to directly opposite the village office in about 20 minutes.
“It’s unbelievable how quickly a wildfire being driven by wind can move,” he said. “You could see trees just candling. They were so dry that they’d just go up in an instant, the entire tree. I’d seen it on TV but never seen it in person.”
It was the beginning of a devastating wildfire season that ultimately forced 65,000 people from their homes, burned a record-setting 12,000 square kilometres of land and kept the province under a state of emergency for 10 weeks.