Images from Clinton, B.C., show what has been saved and lost to a massive wildfire
Posted July 28, 2026 7:48 am.
Last Updated July 28, 2026 9:14 am.
New images of Clinton show the village has been largely spared by the enormous Big Bar wildfire complex in B.C.’s Interior.
However, just to the south, the scenes are apocalyptic as we see for the first time the damage these explosive fires have wrought on some rural properties.
It’s not clear how many structures have been lost — but in some instances, everything that could burn, did.
The Pear Lake wildfire remains out of control, having already scorched an area roughly 5.5 times larger than Vancouver.
Brittany and Andrew Weiler are ranchers living just outside the evacuation zone. They say watching and waiting to see whether their property will suffer a similar fate is taking a toll.
“You can’t go on with normal life, because you’ve got to be on watch,” Andrew said.
“If something changes, it could change everything.”
Brittany says they are taking things hour by hour.
“It’s extremely stressful, especially with the fires creeping in on us,” Brittany said.
“We have a bunch of livestock, children, pets. Everything has been affected. We’re losing sleep. I don’t know what sleep is for the past 10 days.”
Andrew says he was disappointed with the province’s response to the fire, claiming that crews didn’t start working on a fire break until days after it had started, which didn’t give them time to build it wide enough.
“It’s upsetting, because there could have been a way better fire break built, and that would have never ended up going to Clinton,” he said.
“That’s my opinion.”
The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) tells CityNews extreme conditions have created intense fire behaviour that can easily jump breaks that have been established but not yet reinforced by planned or small-scale ignitions. As well, it said, it takes time to plan them effectively, given terrain and fire characteristics.
More than 650 properties in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District are currently under evacuation orders, with about 460 displaced residents ending up in Kamloops.
“Hotel availability in Kamloops has reached capacity at times throughout this, so the city and its partners are using lodging options across the region to ensure evacuees continue to have access to appropriate accommodations,” said Ken Uzeloc, director of the Kamloops Emergency Operations Centre.
Those alternative options have included rooms at nearby Sun Peaks, but officials say they’ve still got a healthy amount of overflow capacity, despite not knowing how many more evacuees are still to come.
