Fear rekindled in Aq’am community as wildfire season begins

It’s just a hole in the ground now, a home once filled with love and laughter, reduced to a few car parts and a pile of rocks. This used to be a gathering place for elders. People from all over the reserve used to come here every year for Christmas, holidays, Thanksgiving, Easter. Come to our house and enjoy a good meal. And that for Pete and Dolly Andrew, July 17th is not an anniversary they are looking forward to. It’s the day the Saint Mary River wildfire broke out, ripping through the reserve on the First Nations community of Ackham and burning their home to the ground. When this fire happened the first week and a half, two weeks, I just kept tapping that nightmares. Thank you. At the time, at least fifty homes were evacuated. Many families were displaced for weeks as the fire raged on. But for Pete and Dolly, that’s still their reality. Living in a hotel and waiting to learn when they will be able to rebuild. We know that we’re going to be getting our house built. We know that much the time and when they’ll they’ll let us know. But in the meantime we were gifted this car that we’re driving when we lost our cars and we were gifted this motorhome, ACUM Chief Joe Pierre says. It could be up to two years before families like theirs have a place to call home again. This is a process like it’s going to take a while to get people back into homes. It’s not going to happen immediately. We’re trying to support each of the families to the level of sport that they’re wanting. The Saint Mary’s River fire burned for months, challenging fire crews as it continued to grow down the valley, and while no injuries were reported, the mental scars are still very raw for the community. I’m scared of the future for the the young people of this province that you know we if if if the the trends continue going in the direction they’re going, we might end up with a time when it’s fire season 12 months of the year here in British Columbia. Last year before the wildfire, Ackham completed a massive prescribed burn. It was touted by the BC Wildfire Service as one of the reasons the Saint Mary’s River fire didn’t do more damage. But that burn took four years to plan and execute, something that Pierre says needs to become a priority in today’s fire landscape. Ultimately, or essentially what has happened here in in this part of North America is that the regular burning that was done by the indigenous people of this part of the world pre contact times was interrupted and so that whole system was interrupted, he says. AKAM is working with other nearby communities like Cranbrook and Kimberly to establish procedures for emergency preparedness, and AKAM is encouraging community members to fire smart their properties. For Pete and Dolly, their hope is to be able to return home one day soon to once again host family and friends and make new memories. Corey Bullock, CBC News, Cranbrook.