Hair-raising start to the week in the North Peace
Stoddart Creek Wildfire
Sorry for the lack of posts in last week – I have a whole bunch of articles for you, but with the fires in the North Peace, there’s been a few higher priorities. But now that the Stoddart Creek fire, which led to us being under an evacuation order, has been beated back a bit, along with downgrading us to an alert, I can finally get my act together.
It has been a rather hair-raising start to the week, that’s for sure. Sunday was spent doing normal Mother’s Day things, until we received the evacuation alert in the late afternoon. Then it was all on, moving farm equipment, and trying to figure out how to protect our livestock and home, at the same time, should the need arise. Then, when we’re still conscientiously preparing – setting up the firefighting equipment – the sky got darker and smokier and by mid-afternoon, we couldn’t see the hay field beyond our lagoon, never mind the lake or any surrounding hills. To top it off, around about the time the power went out, we got an evacuation order.
Have you ever tried packing in the pitch dark, in a mega hurry? I don’t recommend it. We had all our documents etc., ready to go, but clothing? Not so much. Preparing to leave in a hurry, while trying to preserve and protect as much of the things one cannot take, is absolute insanity. My vegetable garden is currently a storage area, as is the kids’ old sandbox, because theoretically, the dirt won’t burn. So no planting my potatoes until this fire is out, I guess.
The dogs were very nervous, they knew this wasn’t normal preparation for camping. The chickens were oblivious. They just wanted to go out and eat bugs. Meanwhile, we’re running around setting up sprinklers to keep their coop from burning, and turning my poor little nuggets into hot wings. There’s no easy way to evacuate 25 half-grown chickens!
Not to fault the Peace River Regional District or the BC Wildfire Service, but I have to say, on a farm, 12-hours is NOT enough time to prepare. Like I said, we started moving stuff right away and getting out our fire hoses etc., but we didn’t get everything set to our satisfaction until Tuesday morning. Yes, we were supposed to leave on Monday. But we didn’t. To our relief, the wind had died down in the evening and it felt like it was going to rain. Unfortunately, the wished for precipitation didn’t appear.
Now, this morning, I see that the water bombers are finally on their way from Kamloops. With temperatures expected to soar again this weekend, they can’t get here soon enough. Although I don’t usually want snow on the May Long Weekend, I’d rather get my garden planted, I think this year, everyone in the North Peace would likely welcome a return to winter. Just for the weekend. Just long enough to put out all the fires.