Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

WILDFIRES 2023

Premier David Eby visits Tk’emlups evacuee camp

Aug 22, 2023 | 5:05 PM

KAMLOOPS — On Tuesday morning, B.C. Premier David Eby made the trip to Kamloops to meet with wildfire evacuees.

He was joined by Harjit Sajjan, the Federal Minister for Emergency Preparedness, as well as the provincial Minister for Emergency Management and Climate Change Bowinn Ma and Forests Minister Bruce Ralston. The group met with evacuees from the North Shuswap, as well as elected officials and band members from Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc.

“It was like hell coming through, just watching that flame come across the river,” evacuee Leo Tomma explains.

Harrowing cell phone video shot by Tomma shows fire consume everything in its path on the north side of the Little River last Friday. “My son came down and said ‘Get out of there,’” Tomma recalls.

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Tomma is among fifty members of Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw – formerly the Little Shuswap Lake Indian Band – who fled the devastating Bush Creek East wildfire and end up at the camp, which is a partnership between the Province of B.C. and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc.

Among those is Kukpi7 Jame Tomma, who shared his story of fleeing the devastating fire. “I got my wife out with seconds to spare,” Kukpi7 Tomma told the Premier. “We got trapped beneath the bridge and we thought ‘This might be it.’ A couple of very brave boys from Adams Lake Fishery came and got us.”

During the tour of the camp, the Premier spoke with other evacuees, some of whom questioned the approach that authorities are taking in the North Shuswap.

“Our whole upper community was lost,” one Lee Creek resident told Premier Eby. “There are people still up there trying to help and they’re getting arrested. There are police boats at the shore stopping supplies, fuel for generators. People in Anglemont are running out of food, they’re trying to boat stuff over. Where is the logic in that?”

Eby’s message was clear: safety is the priority, so listen to first responders and the BC Wildfire Service if you’re in an evacuation zone. “They’re there to coordinate the effort, to save lives first, and protect property as much as we can,” Eby said.

The premier also took the opportunity to reassure those in the camp that the province, along with federal and local governments, is working to get the resources in place to help those displaced by fire.

“Now the work, the long road ahead of both responding to the crisis, that we’re still in, as well as thinking about rebuilding and getting back into communities is all underway with the federal governments, with the local governments and with indigenous leadership across the province,” Eby says.

For Tomma, that future is uncertain. However, he knows he has some family he can lean on while those details get sorted out. “My son’s house is saved, so I can stay with him,” Tomma says. “I might go to Edmonton and stay with my [other] son. For a little while anyway.”