‘Unimaginable’: Lytton residents pull together again amid fire near community

It’s been a trying year for Denise O’Connor. This time last year, she was coming to terms with the fact Lytton, the village she calls home, had all but completely burned down. Now, with the Nohomin Creek fire burning just northwest of her community, she’s re-living that nightmare.

O’Connor lost her home in the downtown area of the village to the fire that broke out on June 30, 2021.

“Then, I had just moved back to Lytton in November, three days before the atmospheric river. We were cut off until January … All of us were saying, ‘What else could happen? Nothing else can happen because we’ve seen the worst.’ Then, lo and behold, another fire that’s taken out homes again, which is just so unimaginable.”

Read more: ‘Rocky, steep, inoperable’: Nohomin Creek wildfire near Lytton hard to access

Now living above the highway on the east side of the Fraser River, O’Connor is still within the village boundaries. The Nohomin Creek wildfire, which is now 1,700 hectares in size, started Thursday north of her, on the other of the river.

“We haven’t smelled smoke at all, because the winds blow from the south. It’s like that all summer. Always has been. The winds come up from Vancouver, up the Fraser Canyon. Rarely do we ever see a north wind,” she explained.

“I talked to a friend in Lillooet a few days ago and they were socked in with smoke from the Lytton fire. I can see it, but I can’t smell it and it’s not affecting us in that way.”

The Nohomin Creek Wildfire burns northwest of Lytton. (Courtesy BC Wildfire Service)

When last summer’s fire broke out during the historic heat dome, O’Connor remembers people living on the west side of the river watched helplessly as Lytton was nearly completely destroyed.

“So we did that on the side of the river this time. We could see the fire where it started. We could see it spreading. We could see things happening, with the thick smoke and the colour of the smoke. That made you wonder what was going on. Are people getting out? That sort of thing.”

The tight-knit community is coming together once again, with neighbours helping neighbours.

“There’s a family over there that has a power source. They volunteered and offered to anybody with homes still standing to bring their freezers — if they can get that in the back of a pickup truck or whatever — bring it to their place, and they will plug it in,” O’Connor described.

Related article: Wildfire near Lytton grows; evacuation orders, alerts issued

She tells CityNews she personally knows three people who have lost their homes in this year’s blaze.

“It’s a small town. Everybody knows everybody. I say three, but I’m sure I know the other people, I just haven’t heard who they are,” she said.

“I know one family I spoke to just recently, they’re in a hotel in Cache Creek. They lost their home a year ago. It’s just so unimaginable. It’s really hard to comprehend.”

Crews are hoping to make good progress on the wildfire Monday, as the temperature is expected to rise and winds are forecast to pick up in the coming days.

The BC Wildfire Service says steep, mountainous terrain has been making it difficult for crews to access the flames of the Nohomin Creek blaze.

Fire Information Officer Taylor Colman says they can only imagine how stressful this fire is for the people of Lytton.

“We’re really all pulling together to support one another and action this fire so that we can do the best that we can to get it under control and relieve that stress from the residents of Lytton, as it is a really stressful and sensitive situation, due to last year.”

I’ve just arrived in the Lytton area with @CityNewsVAN videographer Allan Chek. Here’s a clip of helicopter crews working to tame the Nohomin Creek fire just northwest of Lytton. We’ll bring you more on air and online from the scene. pic.twitter.com/llPP1Goaxz

— Martin MacMahon (@martinmacmahon) July 18, 2022

The Lytton First Nation and Thompson Nicola Regional District have issued evacuation orders and alerts in the area.

Colman notes an archaeologist identified from Lytton First Nation is also heading to the area, “identifying culturally sensitive sites as well as cultural values that we want to protect within the Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park.”

The park is partially closed.

With files from Sonia Aslam

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