IT COULD HAVE HAPPENED to almost any neighbourhood in Kamloops.
Yesterday, it was Batchelor Heights.
A storm cell; a lightning strike; and then suddenly, a grass fire racing toward a residential subdivision.
Residents in the area had little time to react.
One woman we spoke to said she had the family in the car and down the hill within five minutes.
That’s how quickly a family’s life can go from having a normal evening, maybe preparing dinner in the kitchen with the kids playing outside, to literally running for your life.
This rarely happens anywhere else in Canada, but this is life in the B.C. Interior.
Thankfully, we have firefighters at the ready.
Frankly speaking, I’ve heard a lot of people complain about firefighters over the past few years.
People say firefighters aren’t needed as much as they used to be.
Modern, stringent fire codes mean there are fewer structure fires, and the ones that do spark aren’t as destructive as they once were.
Some of that may be true.
People complain firefighters get paid high wages and benefits for sitting around, washing the trucks, cooking meals and working out.
But let’s ask the people of Batchelor Heights what they think about how valuable firefighters are.
Let’s ask anyone in Cache Creek and Ashcroft and Williams Lake and 100 Mile House who had homes to return to last summer about their opinion of firefighters.
The communication efforts last night still left something to be desired.
But the fire suppression itself was carried out expertly.
Perhaps urban firefighting has changed over the years, but skilled wildland firefighting is as important now as it has ever been.
On behalf of everyone in Kamloops who values our homes and our livelihoods – thank you.
A job well done.
