Spirits are high in residents from Argenta despite are the entire village being evacuated last week, July 25, due to the out-of-control Argenta Creek Fire.
Volunteer with the Argenta Fire Brigade, Louis Bockner, says the town’s preparedness in wildfire training has been key to providing the town’s first line of defense to the current blazes
“We’ve been preparing for this in one way or another for decades,” said Bockner.
“For the last 20 years we do an annual wildfire fighting training and we fight a fake fire and a bunch of us get our S -100 and S -185 certificates in preparation for an event like this.”
“So, when these fires started, we were able to respond to them and kind of be an initial attack for BC wildfire service.”
“It feels like at the moment the worst is over, but we’re still under evacuation order, just members of the Argenta Fire Brigade are allowed to stay while we’re working here.”
The cooler weather and sporadic rain have provided relief for fire fighting efforts to replenish, re-evaluate and reassess the damage and continue to plan ahead.
“People here in Argenta are feeling a lot better,” said Bockner.
“It seems like the fires have kind of mellowed out in the last couple of days, which is a huge relief.”
The local brigade will continue structural protection for properties, including getting them fire smart, removing flammables, putting polyester around to protect from ember showers, and ensuring sprinklers are set up on the roofs.
“I am sure everyone is eager to come home, and we can’t say when that will happen.” said Bockner.
At this point there has been no structural losses in the area, but there is still work to be done.
“Most of the structures and dwellings in the community are now effectively surrounded by a fire guard. This is basically a road has been punched in all around the community over the last week and so they’re protected by that, but there are a couple that are outside of that guard and as far as I know they’ve been able to stop the fire at the edges of those houses and nothing has been burned.”
“The fire is quite close like to some properties it’s on their property you know within a couple hundred meters and yeah so in some areas it’s quite close in other areas it’s farther away.”
“We have a really amazing community and we’ve all had a really traumatic experience, but I think in that you see the resilience of the people that we surround ourselves with and just how we come together.”
Grateful for Community Support
A GoFund me page has been established to support the Argenta Safety Preparedness Society, as well as food donations for fire fighter in the ground.
“There’s has been an incredible amount of support,” said Bockner.
“The money raised through the GoFund me page will be used for purchasing equipment we need right now and also equipment moving forward.”
“It will go towards rehabilitation of parts of our community because you know we’ve lost a lot of this precious environment that we all love so much,”
“We’re talking about putting money towards being able to kind of go around to different communities in British Columbia and educate them about what we learned and how other communities might be able to implement something similar to what we have here because I think in a lot of ways that was a key a key factor in us being able to protect our community.”
Argenta’s Worst fire in decades
Born and raised in Argenta, 34-year-old Bockner says this is the worst fire the town has seen in over 100 years.
“We had a fire in 2007 that kind of came to one edge, the north edge of the community, and was stopped there. But I don’t even, I don’t think the community was evacuated during that fire.”
“This time, we have the lake on one side, but basically the forest on two -thirds of the community that is completely gone.”
“North of us in Glacier Creek that’s all been burned as well. Our ecology up here will be forever changed from this, and I think the last time something like this happened was over a hundred years ago, there was a big fire that came out of Idaho and burned most of Kootenay Lake.”
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