Traders Cove and Wilsons Landing are a hive of activity these days.
Heavy equipment rumbling in and out of both neighbourhoods across the lake from Kelowna offers a distinct thrum while hammers continually clanging provide a backbeat to curbside conversations between neighbours.
On any given day that activity, cast against a backdrop of budding greenery and a gleaming lake, makes the community look vibrant and new, though that’s not quite the reality. There are deep scars beneath the shine that are far from healed.
Aug. 17 marks one year since the McDougall Creek wildfire whipped through the streets of Westside neighbourhoods, just two days after it started in the hills behind the city. The blaze eventually crossed to Kelowna, then Lake Country, and in its totality became the Grouse Complex.
While there were nearly 200 homes lost to the inferno that scarred 13,500 hectares in the Central Okanagan, the highest proportion of loss were more rural, lake-adjacent homes, with 90 destroyed.
Paul Zydowicz, fire chief of Wilson’s Landing, described the scene just days after the worst of the firefight was over.
“The fire was intense. It came very quickly. It came with violence. I can’t describe it any other way,” he said at the time. “The world shattered.”
Of the 24-member firefighting crew, 13 lost their homes that day. Zydowicz’s was among them.
Now, nearly a year after he was caught in the thick of flames bearing down on his community, he can reflect on his situation differently. Looking at the interviews he did in the immediate aftermath, Zydowicz couldn’t help but notice the darkness he carried and remark upon how he’s changed since, largely for the better.
“I’m happier than I was that month … That was a tremendous amount of stress on everybody, not just myself, but everybody dealing with that pain of having watched your neighbours’ houses go up in smoke, and not having the ability to do anything about it,” he said.
“That’s a pretty big hit on somebody that does this, as even a part-time job.”
The memory of the 48-hour firefight, he said, is fragmented these days and for almost all he’s spoken to about it.
“Because we got so little sleep during the entire event it turned into this one big, long-lasting battle, for lack of a better description,” he said. “It was intense. I think it was the most intense event of my life, for sure.”
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The McDougall Creek wildfire burns on the mountainside above houses in West Kelowna, B.C., on Friday, August 18, 2023.
Moving on from devastation
When the anniversary of losing his home rolls around on Saturday Zydowicz said he and his family may have a moment of silence, to reflect on what they’ve lost and how they’ve survived.
But, more imminently, they’ll be moving to yet another rental — the second one in a year. It’s a fitting representation of the recovery process.
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Like many others in the area, Zydowicz has found rebuilding more challenging than expected, which says a lot given that not only is he a firefighter, he’s also a contractor. He’s building his own home, well aware of how to navigate the system in which home builds are mired.
“I think it will be another year and a half until we’re in our home, that’s my goal,” he said.
“You know, it took a really long time to get here. We’ve already lost a year, and that’s been in the insurance process.”
It’s a topic that comes up a lot when walking through the Traders Cove neighbourhood and Zydowicz said it needs to be looked at more closely.
“I can’t speak of one person that I know that’s had a good, pleasant, professional business experience.”
“As far as insurance is concerned, there’s been a lot of really bad stories, so that’s something that I think could be better. The fact that we haven’t started building a house for a year, and I know how to do it myself, that’s not good enough.”
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, wildfires in the Okanagan and Shuswap areas cost about $720 million in insured damage. In a report from earlier this year, the bureau said 2023 is now the fourth-worst year for insured losses in Canada, reflecting challenges.
Those challenges, however, are being felt most acutely by those in need.
Jessica Nowak’s home is at the entry point of Traders Cove and it was scorched but, for lack of a better way to put it, not quite enough for insurers. Now she’s living in a situation that makes her worry for the health and well-being of her two young children.
On the night when the damage was done, she remembers leaving their home, dropping off their pets and getting a call from neighbours who said their cameras went out and they thought their house was gone. They later confirmed that their home did survive, though not unscathed.
“I just want to give a huge shout out to firefighters, because they fought so hard to save our house,” she said. “It was a fight and a half, and many of them had lost their own homes.”
She said she’s blessed to have a home but it’s been a year and their house is still severely damaged.
“We have not had any repairs done for the actual repair scope outside of, you know, some emergency remediation,” Nowak said. “The insurance company somehow decided that our house was deemed livable.”
Amid the damage, there’s insulation that needs to be replaced because it’s contaminated with soot and fridge leakage. They had to replace the subfloor and redo the flooring.
“Currently we have no flooring in the majority of upstairs and the kids’ rooms,” she said. “We have some windows that have actual broken glass. Otherwise, all the seals are broken throughout the entire house. We have significant exterior damage. There’s a lot.”
She hired a contractor to help make it livable for their kids and their pets to come home but, she said, they’re still fighting for compensation that will allow further progress. But there’s been no progress, she said.
There’s a “false narrative out there” that life has moved on and the rebuild is going well, she said.
“The majority of my friends in the neighbourhood, unfortunately, no longer have homes, and everybody’s struggling,” Nowak said.
“I mean, my neighbours still are waiting for a building permit. You know, the house across the street just got started … Unfortunately, none of us in the community expected to be, a year later, just fighting for some of the basics. I mean, people still don’t even have building permits approved, and they’re wading through the bureaucratic red tape for eight-plus weeks, and unfortunately, the regional district is not really assisting, like they said.
“We haven’t had much support.”
Government support and struggles
The McDougall Creek wildfire razed a total of 191 homes in West Kelowna, Kelowna, Westbank First Nation and the neighborhoods of Traders Cove and Wilsons Landing and each region is moving through the rebuild process differently.
To date, the Regional District of Central Okanagan has approved 77 of 81 demolition permits as well as 14 of 25 rebuild permits, while the City of West Kelowna has issued a total of 75 wildfire recovery permits, including 32 approved demolition permits and one approved construction permit.
The RDCO said in a statement that each wildfire-affected property has unique characteristics that create individualized requirements and timelines for each property owner.
“The RDCO did see significant loss during the McDougall Creek wildfire to waterfront and foreshore properties, which involve environmental complexities and additional permitting requirements,” a representative from the regional district said.
The regional district is also working with residents, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, Interior Health, BC Hydro and other relevant provincial ministries and agencies to facilitate the Lake Okanagan Resort wildfire recovery. There were 140 units at the Okanagan tourism landmark destroyed in the fire, and its future is murky.
“Lake Okanagan Resort Ltd. has a critical role in the future restoration of the area,” regional district staff said.
“However, we will continue to provide assistance and resource information to the strata and property owners around the process and authorities for rebuilding – what the RDCO can do and what other ministries and agencies have the authority to do.”
Of the 69 properties that were total losses during the wildfire, 47 property owners came in for demolition permits and, to date, 30 have been demolished. Of just over 20 single-family building permit applications, all of those have been approved but none have been completed, said Brent Magnan, director of development approvals for West Kelowna.
“We have a planning and a building permitting team that have been put together to deal specifically with wildfire rebuilds, so that both those departments are speaking and working together closely to make sure that the process is as seamless as possible, where we can,” he said.
“I know that in some jurisdictions where there’s for sure properties, there’s been some challenges with some of the riparian work that needs to happen associated with these permits, but we had very few properties that were impacted, that were along over on the lakes, so we haven’t seen those types of situations at this time.”
Comparatively, the Westbank First Nation has moved most swiftly. Of the 12 single-family homes and the fourplex that went up in smoke, eight houses are under construction.
“We’ve demolished all of the homes that were damaged, and we’re very much ahead of the game, I believe, and this is because we have self-government,” Chief Robert Louie said.
“As such, we have a department that gets on things quick, or as quickly as they as they possibly can. So that’s what we’ve done in our home community. It’s been devastating to the families that lost their homes, and we understand that and appreciate that, so we’ve waived the original demolition fees on their behalf. We’ve been very collaborative.”