Gorman Bros. Lumber mill during the 2009 Glenrosa wildfire.

Image Credit: Submitted/Stephanie Whiting

WEST KELOWNA - Fire seasons come and go, but ten years ago but nearly every resident of West Kelowna remembers where they were 10 years ago this week.

Three separate wildfires in West Kelowna forced thousands of people from their homes and threatened one of the largest employers in the area.

Shifting winds whipped the Glenrosa wildfire back and forth as it destroyed two Gorman family homes and threatened their mill a decade ago.

That fire was spotted about 2:30 pm. on July 18, 2009 over the hill behind Gorman Bros. Lumber mill in West Kelowna. Fortunately, maintenance crews were working that day and willing to stay behind to try to protect the mill.

Homes of two Gorman family members didn’t fare as well, although the nearby home of current CEO Nick Arkle, a mere 300 metres away, was spared.

“The winds took it north, right across the hillside, actually heading away from the mill,” Arkle told iNFOnews.ca today, July 25. “That’s when it burned the first house. Then the winds turned, brought it down to where it burned the second house. Both of those houses belonged to members of the family. Then it turned and came back right around the back of the mill, jumped the highway and went down to the lake. It was at that stage when the mill was most at risk.”

The blaze triggered the evacuation of about 6,000 residents in the Glenrosa neighbourhood and burned two other structures below the highway.

“Those that were there with the fire hoses and, by then, the fire department as well, were able to protect the mill,” Arkle said.

Fire bombing of fire retardant saved the log yards but some lumber decks were burned.

While it took about five days for the fire to dwindle to a safe level, it was a long initial two days for Arkle and others at the mill.

“The vast majority was that Saturday afternoon into the evening but evening ran into Sunday,” Arkle said. “Although the leading edge of the fire had moved on, you’ve always got these fires that are burning behind it. When the wind picks up, the sparks and burning material drop back down onto you. That carried on for at least another day.

“I remember that a number of us went 48 hours without sleep. It was just 48 hours of monitoring and checking that sparks hadn’t landed on roofs of buildings and weren’t smouldering away and you couldn’t see them until they suddenly blew up.”

Of particular concern was the amount of sawdust inside the mill that could easily have ignited.

Workers who were concerned about losing their jobs showed up on an ongoing basis to help monitor the situation until the danger had passed.

On the day the fire started, temperatures hit 37 C and winds gusted up to 70 km/hour, according to a Firefighting in Canada article. The fire burned about 400 hectares of forest.

As far as Arkle knows, the cause of the fire is still unknown but, given its location, he suspects it might have been sparked by dirt bikes or all-terrain vehicles.

That fire was out within a few days, but that was just one of three fires that started July 18.

The largest and most aggressive of the fires started on Terrace Mountain, near Fintry, at 5:30 p.m. That fire burned until mid-August, consuming almost 10,000 hectares of forest. It was highly visible burning above Westside Road and pushing south, although it never threatened to burn any homes or structures.

In Rose Valley, fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. July 18, forcing another 8,000 people from their homes. No homes or structures were threatened but it added pressure on firefighters and emergency social services agencies who were then responsible for nearly 14,000 evacuated residents.

Like the Glenrosa fire, it was fully contained within a few days.

All three fires were human-caused.

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