(image credit - Chris Bode)

By Michael Reeve

BARNHARTVALE FIRE

Residents helped keep Barnhartvale fire at bay as KFR arrived Monday night

Aug 6, 2024 | 6:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Fire Rescue (KFR) knocked down an interface fire in the Barnhartvale neighbourhood Monday (Aug. 5) evening as a fire aided by strong winds and dry grass burned through several back yards in the neighbourhood before KFR was able to extinguish the blaze. Thankfully no injuries were reported, and there was only minor damage to property such as melted siding.

With the fire quickly moving across his neighbours back yard and toward his house, Chris Bode and his son jumped into action, armed with a garden hose to fight back the flames.

“They saw it coming, and they came running into the house and then there was just pandemonium, well it wasn’t really pandemonium everybody was kind of calm, my son came down grabbed the hose and we started up,” said Bode.

The Bode family was joined by a number of Barnhartvate residents in the fight, running buckets of water or hitting the fire themselves with a small hose.

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“We kept it at bay to a point and once they (KFR) showed up it was kind of a relief. But even my son just kept working with them. It worked good,” added Bode.

Kamloops Fire Rescue got the call at around 7:45 p.m., responding in force with multiple units.

“There is two roads that circle around all that residential and luckily the wind just from the point of ignition all the way east from where it was. our crews did a real quick offensive attack with the help of a lot of the locals actually they were quite helpful in getting some garden hoses on the fire to to keep it knocked down,” said Deputy Fire Chief Ryan Cail.

At this time the cause is still unknown, with fire investigators on scene Tuesday (Aug. 6).

While no homes were lost in the blaze, it serves as an important reminder how fast fires can spread due to drought conditions around Kamloops.

“It’s definitely a challenging time of year, the indices are pointing towards some volatile situations, and fires can easily get out of control in a real hurry,” stated Cail.

Bode joked with the fire now out, it becomes a story, one he hopes to never relive.

“It was crazy, it was within seconds, minutes and it was here. Amazing,” said Bode.