‘Four weeks ago, my community was devastated’: West Kelowna fire chief urges UN to take climate action

Details of a 36-hour harrowing wildfire fight “that felt like 100 years” stole the show at a United Nations General Assembly climate event in New York on Wednesday.

West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund called on member states to take urgent action to address the climate crisis while speaking at the Global Carbon Pricing Challenge conference.

In his remarks, he detailed the trying first few days of the fight against the McDougall Creek wildfire.

“I want to take you back with me (to) the hot, windy, August night. We were surrounded by fire, wind was driving it down on us, the sky was orange. We were dug in, it was the fight of our lives,” he told the assembly.

“Four weeks ago, my community was devastated.”

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Brolund presented accounts he had gotten from firefighters battling the flames to the UN. One firefighter even described the situation to Brolund as “fighting 100 years of fire, all in one night.”

“Like most firefighters, I was born there, I grew up there, and I put on the uniform every single day to serve my community. For me, it’s been 27 years,” Brolund said of West Kelowna.

He said the first three days of the McDougall Creek wildfire were the “toughest” of his career. Help came from far and wide, with support culminating in “one of the largest fire departments in the country” that “went to war,” he said.

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“We saved people and their properties, sometimes by the smallest margin. The police knocked on thousands of doors to get people out. They crammed entire families into their police cars, and then drove through flames to escape,” the fire chief explained. “We ordered over 10,000 people to get out that first night, my family and I included. My wife and daughter left town, I stayed behind. That was the plan that we had practiced and now we were doing it.”

The McDougall Creek fire was first reported on Aug. 15. The wildfire grew significantly the following weekend, spreading and jumping across Okanagan Lake to the east.

It wasn’t until Thursday, Sept. 21, that the BC Wildfire Service announced the blaze was classified as “being held,” meaning it is “not likely to spread beyond predetermined boundaries under current conditions.”

But even weeks after flames first sparked, memories of those first few days were evidently still very much with those who were on the frontlines.

“I saw walls of flames bearing down on my community for miles,” Brolund recalled.

“I desperately hoped that everyone had followed the orders to evacuate but I knew that was unlikely. Some people made it to the lake, their only option to survive in the water. They were rescued by a boat. A burn victim walked into the fire hall. Not all doors were knocked on, the fire came too fast.”

The McDougall Creek fire, estimated at 13,970 hectares as of Thursday, grew even larger at one point, Brolund said.

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Related video: B.C. task force to look at wildfire, climate emergency response

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He described the fight of crews’ lives, saying on more than one occasion, firefighters were able to save entire neighbourhoods.

“As the sun rose that morning, I went home to shower and my wife asked me, ‘How bad?’ And all I could answer was, ‘Very, very, very bad.’ The question in my mind that I wouldn’t say to her was, ‘How much death?'” Brolund said, after a difficult day and night.

But there were no missing persons reports, and no bodies discovered, he continued, adding he kept asking himself, “How did this happen to us? We were gutted.”

The fire ultimately destroyed nearly 200 properties in the West Kelowna and Westbank First Nation areas. Among those were the homes of 13 firefighters in the Okanagan-area community Wilson’s Landing

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation as crews continue to mop up, patrol, and extinguish hotspots.

The McDougall Creek fire came 22 years after another firestorm in the Okanagan. Brolund was also there in 2001, on the frontline.

“That was supposed to be a once-in-a-career fire, but it has happened to me twice now,” he said.

“Climate change became very real for West Kelowna on August 16th.” 

According to the West Kelowna fire chief, over $20 million has been spent on the McDougall Creek fire so far. Insurance losses are expected to be much higher.

“What could we have accomplished if we used that same amount of money proactively? We’re spending the money on the wrong end of the problem,” Brolund added.

“Someone told me during this event that people are put in places for a reason. Through this event, I found my reason, but I hope that my experience inspires you as leaders to find yours and make the change we need.”

During the climate event, the UN also heard from Halifax Assistant Fire Chief Sherry Dean, who described how some of her crew members pulled people to safety as their homes went up in flames.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also spoke, using the moment to promote carbon pricing as a way for the leaders of member countries to stand by their first responders.

-With files from Charlie Carey and The Canadian Press