The remains of the McAllister home in Venables Valley (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

WILDFIRE SEASON 2024

Venables Valley families left picking up the pieces after the Shetland Creek wildfire devastated the community

Aug 28, 2024 | 5:30 PM

VENABLES VALLEY B.C. — In late July, the Shetland Creek wildfire forced the evacuation of the Venables Valley between Ashcroft and Spences Bridge as the blaze grew to more than 27,000 hectares. Six homes and multiple out-buildings were lost in the off-grid community, with residents returning recently to begin surveying the damage and planning for the future.

The scars of the Shetland Creek wildfire become quickly overwhelming as you enter the Venables Valley.

“I don’t have the answer for the rebuild. We are fundraising. We do have a lot of friends and family that reached out throughout the whole community to help us — what that looks like, at this point I don’t know. We are focused on winter,” said Mark Greenberg, noting that the community’s snowplow and sander were destroyed in the blaze.

Just mere hours before the fire ripped through the community, Greenberg was working to FireSmart his property, action he credits with saving his home from adding to the already $200,000 of equipment lost and two years of stored food.

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“The sprinklers and BC Wildfire. Any structure that is standing in this valley is because BC Wildfire got water to the properties that are still standing. It’s only a few feet away the destruction,” added Greenberg.

While Greenberg was lucky, others in the community, like the McAllister, family were left picking up the pieces of their homes and lives. Partly to blame in their mind, mismanagement of Crown land backing their property.

“There was so much fuel. We’ve FireSmarted our property and if you look around, you can see the difference in the forest that we FireSmarted and the forest that was not. And that forest is the reason that our home could not be saved,” said Radha McAllister.

Fire danger has passed with the area restriction lifted, but as winter approaches, the changed landscape presents new dangers.

“You can see these hills and a lot of places are absolutely just scorched. That is definitely going to be a concern going forward in terms of landslide, in terms of debris flow,” said TNRD Manager of Community and Emergency Management Kevin Skrepnek. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen that a number of times in the TNRD the past few years — fire-impacted areas then getting additional impacts later on, these kind of cascading emergencies.”

Still after weeks of cleanup, the long road to recovery is only just beginning but will be a path worth travelling for those that remain.

“I don’t know what the future is going to look like. I want to be here. Our community is here, our children want to be here, we love this place, we love the people here, so we still want to be here. We could pack up and leave, but I think that would break my heart more than this house burning,” said McAllister.

The community is raising money to help those impacted the most by the fire and also to help rebuild infrastructure in the off-grid village.

Anybody looking to donate to the cause can learn more at venablesvalleywildfire.com