Abandoned, melted vehicles are scattered amongst the wreckage left behind by the McDougall Creek wildfire.

(JESSE TOMAS / iNFOnews.ca)

Evacuees on Westside Road and Bear Creek Road were left appalled after they were offered a communal bus tour of the neighbourhood by the regional district to find out if their homes were destroyed or not.

Jaclyn Falck, a resident in the area, told iNFOnews.ca that she had to wait 15 days after the fire until she was contacted by any officials.

When Falck was contacted she was told that her property had been marked as a total loss, a fact that she knew was incorrect.

“We could see our home in a telescope, like a hunting telescope,” she said.

From this Falck had been able to determine that one of the two structures on her property was still intact.

“I expressed my concern at that point that I knew that one home was standing, the other was not,” she said. “My concern was that they were going to be calling someone else to tell them that their home was standing when it was indeed gone because they had mixed up ours.”

On this call, Falck was also informed of a bus tour of the neighbourhood.

“The main reason for (the) call was to tell the status of the property, which was wrong, and to see about (my) interest in regards to going on a bus, whereby we'd be able to view the neighbourhood," she said. “We wouldn't be able to go on or off the bus and there would be grief counsellors on the bus for support as we went.”

Onboard would also be a people from Falck’s neighbourhood, although only two individuals per household were allowed to attend.

“They had indicated that there were only spots for two people per household,” she said. “So, you had to choose. And it was for property owners only. So, no tenants.”

Falck said she was aware before the phone call that this bus service had been offered to other neighbourhoods affected by the fire.

“I heard that they were starting to organize it for Scott Crescent,” she said. “Because they got to go back to their area sooner than we did. And we had heard that what we're lovingly referring to as a ‘trauma bus’ was offered to them… People were sending footage of these trauma buses or whatever going through neighbourhoods. So, we knew that they were happening.

“Prior to my phone call, when it was offered, I wasn't completely shocked, but I was just appalled and honestly disgusted that that was the response that was going to be provided to people.

"Given what we know about trauma, given what we know about the hardships that everybody had had to endure for many, many weeks, I didn't feel like it was appropriate for people to see their homes and the ruins and rubble that is left of their lives and their properties for the first time on a bus with all of their neighbours and for everyone watch them grieve like they were some sort of zoo animal or in a fishbowl.

"It just didn't feel like a humane or dignified way to treat any of us with tact whose lives had just been flipped upside down.”

Unsurprisingly, Falck declined the offer to go on the bus. Since then, she has not received a single phone call from authorities regarding her property.

“The only phone call I have ever received up until this date was that phone call saying our property was a total loss and offering that bus ride. Nobody has had contact with us in any other regard for anything else.”

Heather Reis had a similar experience after her home was completely lost on Bear Creek Road to the McDougall Creek wildfire.

“I thought, this is a joke there's no way they're gonna do bus rides through this community. But I guess this, in years gone past, is how they handled it,” she said.

Reis lived in a newly refurbished basement suite with her husband. Her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren resided in main floor of the home.

Only Reis’ son was contacted regarding the bus tour.

“I never actually got a call,” she said. “They said they can't even go up (to your home)... You have to stay on the bus and you'll be with other people who signed up and I think that was such a turn-off for everybody.”

Reis said she was also uncomfortable with idea of not being with all her family in such a vulnerable moment.

“If I wanted to go, I would need to go... with my family and do it on our own. It's personal, right? As opposed to having a grief counsellor and having people crying on the bus beside you,” she said. “I just thought that was just the strangest thing.”

Reis also declined the offer for a bus tour as her house was located at the end of a long driveway and therefore would not have been visible anyway.

Falck said that many of neighbours faced a similar issue.

“A lot of the homes are large properties and you're not actually able to see the homes from the road and there was going to be no going up and down driveways and or getting on and off the bus,” she said. “So, it was not going to be helpful for a lot of people to even confirm or deny structure loss, considering that the emergency support services continued to get it wrong as to what was a total loss and what wasn't.”

Many members of the community refused the offer, with only roughly six people boarding the bus, Falck said.

“About six people went on it,” she said. “We have a large community group chat that keeps everybody informed… but those six people weren't a part of our group chat and didn't realize there might be another option, didn't realize that we were going to be doing a call for action for something more humane and dignified.”

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