‘It was 100 years’ worth of firefighting in one night’: West Kelowna chief on wildfire | CBC News
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Jason Brolund didn’t sleep last night, nor did most of the residents of the city he’s protecting.
As West Kelowna Fire Chief, Brolund was out on the front lines, co-ordinating firefighters as they tried to fight the McDougall Creek wildfire ripping through parts of the city.
The noise of the flames stood out as he tried to describe their efforts.
“It sounds like a rushing river,” he said.
“We knew that it was going to be bad. But it was exponentially worse than we had expected.”
West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund says he felt like he was fighting 100 years of wildfires all at once as flames whipped into his city Thursday night.
Wildfires are known for turning day into night with their heavy smoke, but in West Kelowna, the opposite happened as the fire illuminated the midnight sky.
“The funny thing was, last night — and I say funny with the utmost respect — but the funny thing was that night turned to day and the orange glow was like nothing that I’ve ever experienced,” he said.
‘Worst nightmare’
More than 2,400 properties are under an evacuation order, and more than 4,800 properties are under an evacuation alert due to the encroaching McDougall Creek wildfire, which grew more than a hundredfold — from 64 hectares to 6,800 hectares (68 square kilometres) — in just 24 hours.
The extreme conditions in the area are not expected to let up over the next 36 hours, and fires across the province may see significant growth, provincial officials say. New evacuation orders and alerts were being announced for the area throughout the day.
Thousands of people in Kelowna and West Kelowna, B.C., are being told to leave their homes as a fast-growing wildfire spreads into both cities. CBC host Chris Walker spoke to West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund and evacuee Steve Francis.
Brolund spoke to CBC’s Daybreak South just after 6 a.m. on Friday, and around 10 a.m. he held a televised press conference. He appeared calm on camera, and spoke candidly of the difficult situation at hand.
“[It was] one of the most challenging nights of firefighting in our history,” Brolund said.
“It was 100 years’ worth of firefighting in one night.”
Crews were able to protect critical buildings and infrastructure — a school, a new water treatment plant, the fire hall — but an unknown number of homes burned down. It was a devastating night for Brolund.
“We had people trapped — that’s a fire chief’s worst nightmare — those emergency responders were trapped because they were rescuing members of the public who had chosen not to leave.”
Eventually they were extracted. So far there are no reports of human casualties.
By Friday morning, the fire hadn’t let up. Brolund said that as he drove in that morning for the press conference, crews were just as “dug in” to fighting as they had been at 2 a.m. Winds had also grown stronger by Friday morning.
“There are homes burning out there right now,” he said. “This is the real deal … you need to be ready, you need to co-operate when authorities ask you to leave.”
Friendship and professional partnerships
Officials made the call to evacuate residents on Thursday evening. Police officers knocked on doors, telling residents it was time to leave. As of Friday, more than 2,400 properties are under evacuation order and more than 4,800 properties under evacuation alert.
“RCMP officers just kept coming from all over [B.C.]… They knocked on thousands of doors, it’s incredible,” he said.
Firefighters from towns and cities, far and wide — Kamloops, Agassiz, and Vancouver Island, to name a few — also came to help, as did B.C. Wildfire personnel.
Brolund couldn’t be with his family during the crisis, but he said they are safe.
“We have an emergency plan and you know, my wife and daughter were able to put it into place,” he said.
As fire chief, Brolund said his team’s response was possible thanks to official partnerships and personal relationships, including his friendship with Travis Whiting, fire chief for the City of Kelowna.
“Chief Whiting and I are friends before we’re co-workers, and I know I can call on him,” Brolund said.
But the emergency is far from over.
“My people are strong and we’re going to be here for the long-run, we’re going to prepare that it will be worse, and we ask the public to do the same,” he said.
“Don’t panic, be ready, we may have another scary night tonight and it’s going to look worse than you ever expected … [but] we’re going to get this thing.”
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