Scotch Creek Fire Hall (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

WILDFIRE SEASON 2023

Rebuilding the North Shuswap simpler than Lytton: Premier Eby

Sep 11, 2023 | 4:09 PM

KAMLOOPS — More than two years after the Village of Lytton was completely wiped out by wildfire, rebuilding the community remains painfully slow. Residents in the North Shuswap, who were just allowed to return home last week are hoping they don’t suffer a similar fate of a slowing moving process.

In the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) alone, 176 homes have been completely lost due to the Bush Creek East wildfire, with many more damaged. Across British Columbia, that number of structures lost is closer to 400 this summer.

Despite the high number of homes lost, B.C.’s premier doesn’t expect the rebuild process to be as long and complicated as Lytton.

“Lytton was an incredibly challenging situation where the entire city, including all the records at city hall burned to the ground, and rebuilding the whole community from scratch. Happily thanks to the work of the wildfire service we are not facing that kind of situation in these wildfires,” said Eby. “These homeowners deserve every single bit of support and hopefully we are in a much better position, given the fact the local government structures are still intact and will be good partners for us here.”

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Eby did, however, urge caution about the work still ahead of the provincial agencies working on emergency relief and recovery, noting B.C. is not yet out of the woods for the wildfire season, and that other disasters could be ahead thanks in part to the scorched earth left behind.

“There is a great deal of urgency, because the scale of this wildfire season was so historic and because we are going into another season now where we are dealing with drought and simultaneously the possibility of significant rainfall. We have to do our recovery planning at the same time we are in an active state of emergency. We have been working with the federal government on emergency disaster relief to ensure that local communities have the support that they need,” stated Eby.