Lytton First Nation members forced from homes due to Nohomin Creek wildfire

As an out-of-control wildfire continues to burn just outside Lytton, evacuees from the local First Nation are making their way to surrounding communities.

Jody Charlie lives on the banks of Nohomin Creek with her parents and three children. Her father made it to safety but the family faced an agonizing wait as firefighters worked in the area.

“It’s scary, just the thought of it. We weren’t home at the time but my father was and he doesn’t have a cellphone and we had no contact with him and it was really hard,” she told CityNews.

“They were able to save the house, to build a guard around the house. If they didn’t do that, we would have lost our home.”

Coverage of the out of control Nohomin Creek wildfire just outside Lytton continues on @CityNewsVAN — while the wind has died down significantly, it’s a whole lot smokier today. The concern now is what this run of warm weather will mean for this fire’s volatility. pic.twitter.com/gyCTrwSad1

— Martin MacMahon (@martinmacmahon) July 19, 2022

Barry Charlie has been staying at the Tumbleweed Motel in Cache Creek for more than a year since he fled Lytton First Nation during the 2021 fires. Now he’s waiting for news of family still there.

“It’s pretty hard, pretty sad. Everybody’s pretty well – we’re all angry with what’s happened,” he said.

John Aleck didn’t even get an evacuation order. He says the fire started so fast that he was forced on Sunday to jump into his sister’s neighbour’s pick-up, where 11 people clung to each other on a harrowing ride out of the area.

“She said, ‘Get in the truck! Get in the truck!’ and we had to fly up to Lillooet because it was on our side again. That grass fire just rages, so you have to get out of Dodge before the fire,” he recalled.

“It was pretty devastating because I have a lot of valuables and stuff in the house — everybody does. You’ve got pictures, a lot of momentos. So that’s what we’re praying for.”

Related links

• Nohomin Creek wildfire brings back difficult memories of Lytton for evacuees

• Ottawa to provide B.C. $870 million dollars for disaster recovery support

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

The Lytton First Nation sits on the east side of the Thompson River — right where it branches off from the Fraser. The Nohomin Creek fire started burning on the west side of the Fraser River, prompting evacuation orders and alerts across both the First Nation and parts of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

After the catastrophic fire of 2021, which all but destroyed the Village of Lytton, the Nohomin Creek blaze is bringing up some difficult memories.

“It’s pretty sad because we just went through it already, and our whole community’s burnt up. Now, everything else is burning up. It’s just like a string of bad things that happened because we live in the hottest spot in Canada,” Aleck told CityNews.

“It’s pretty traumatic because you don’t know. We lost our whole community last year and people still haven’t recovered from that. The first time I walked through Lytton after the fire, I cried openly and I know a lot of people who said the same thing. All of our childhood [memories] are gone, places we used to run … When you lost everything, it’s hard to imagine how we’re going to be able to start over because it’s just a flat spot there.”

“Winds yesterday afternoon were challenging, gusting up to 60 km/hr on site but the containment lines the crews have been building on the south, east and north flanks held up well against these gusts,” said a BC Wildfire Service update on Tuesday evening.

“The contingency line the crews have been working to build was completed yesterday as they reached the scree slope and have used this natural feature to tie their line into. The fire perimeter along this line has burned quite patchy and uneven. Today the crew will continue mop up along this line and will be extinguishing hot spots and smokes up to 50 ft in from the perimeter.”

As of now, this fire is still considered out of control. The winds have died down significantly, but it is expected to get hotter in the coming days, and that is a concern, specifically when it comes to fire volatility.

With files from Hana Mae Nassar

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