The Scotch Creek fire hall was one of the sights of devastation shown to media this week. It was destroyed by the Bush Creek East Wildfire. No media have been allowed into the areas burned by the McDougall Creek Wildfire even though both blazes happened at about the same time and damaged a similar number of properties.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

August 17 to 18, 2023 were big, bad days for wildfires in the Okanagan and Shuswap.

That’s when the McDougall Creek Wildfire near West Kelowna erupted into an inferno and destroyed dozens of homes.

It’s about the same time that the Bush Creek East Wildfire tore through a similar number of properties in the Shuswap area.

All wildfires are different in how they start, how they spread and where they burn.

Bush Creek East, for example, was started by lighting on July 12 and joined with other fires in the area. It now covers 43,100 ha.

The cause of the McDougall Creek Wildfire is still under investigation. It started Aug. 15, just two days before exploding into an inferno. It is one third the size of Bush Creek East at 13,712 ha.

Both fires are still ranked as burning out of control.

In both these situations emergency operations centers flew into action, evacuation orders and alerts were issued and firefighting crews – both provincial and local – raced to the scene to battle hard against the flames.

But, even before those dreadful days, the way evacuees were communicated with was vastly different.

First of all, Shuswap residents – along with others in most Thompson and Okanagan regional districts – were able to sign up for alerts to sound on their phones – both cell and land lines – warning them of impending dangers.

Not so in the Central Okanagan. All that could be done there was to have police and others knock on thousands of doors and tell people to get out – although a provincial alert did go out to some phones.

READ MORE: How were you alerted to evacuate for Central Okanagan wildfires?

Daily news briefings were held in both areas.

Reporters at the West Kelowna events were allowed one question and one follow-up – even if the responses given did not really answer their questions.

More leeway was granted reporters in the Shuswap.

We do know that the Bush Creek East Wildfire destroyed 176 homes and damaged 50 other structures.

There has been no count of homes destroyed by the McDougall Creek Wildfire, just that 189 properties suffered some damage.

One of those properties, Okanagan Lake Resort, had 150 units that, apparently, were destroyed. Those included a range of resort rooms, timeshares, strata and outright home ownership.

Of the 188 other properties, Camp Owaissi had a number of buildings destroyed but no count of how many has been given. There is no news on whether there were duplexes destroyed that counted as one property or two. Westbank Indian Band said it had a fourplex destroyed.

So the count of actual homes, including resort units, could easily be more than 300.

No maps showing just where the McDougall Creek Wildfire was, and still is, burning were ever produced. Images of areas hit by the Bush Creek East Wildfire were produced and shown at news briefings.

This is a map of the Bush Creek East Wildfire shown on a video update on Aug. 24 by BC Wildfire Service's Forrest Tower. No such images were shown to the public during McDougall Creek Wildfire updates.

Image Credit: YouTube/Columbia Shuswap Regional District

Then there is the ability of residents to get back in to see their homes.

READ MORE: Why some evacuated West Kelowna residents are still waiting to go home

On Aug. 30, emergency services staff started contacting those whose homes were destroyed by the McDougall Creek Wildfire and, over a period of about a week, they were bused in to view the damage – but only if their homes were easily accessible.

Initially, those whose homes were still habitable were told they would have to wait until the evacuation orders were lifted before returning.

Then, on Sept. 5, that stand was abruptly reversed and it was announced that those who still had homes would be able to go in, briefly, and get some personal possessions.

That was limited to certain areas and the first addresses announced were changed hours later due to an unspecified “safety issue.”

That turned out to be an odor that was determined to be “negligible” by environmental officials the next day.

No media access has been granted and no details have yet to be released on just what areas of the city and regional district burned.

Contrast that to what happened on Wednesday of this week when more than 10,000 Shuswap residents were allowed to go back to their homes, two hours after the media was given a guided tour of damaged areas.

READ MORE: Thousands of North Shuswap residents return to communities scarred by fire

“The first persons that should go to see lost homes are the ones whose home is lost,” Sally Ginter, Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre Director, said at an Aug. 28 news conference.

That seems to be the only explanation given as to why there has been no media access. That results in the only images of what happened that dreadful night in August are in social media posts.

There are still more than 400 properties under evacuation order in the West Kelowna area. People are only allowed in during four-hour windows.

If they miss their scheduled visiting time, they are banned until evacuation orders are downgraded.

In the Shuswap, only a few properties that have yet to be assessed for danger are off limits to their owners and residents.

"Of course everybody's going to be curious. Everybody's going to want to go for a walk. I'm happy to see my community coming back, but there's still a lot of dangerous stuff out here," Scotch Creek/Lee Creek fire captain Brian Dalgliesh said during the media tour. "We've got trees, we've got ash pits — there's still a lot of unknowns out here. To anybody coming in, I'd just like to say please don't go for a walk."

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