‘It was just devouring’; Venables Valley residents escape without structure losses, but concern remains

SPENCES BRIDGE, B.C. — Late Wednesday (July 17) night the Teit Creek and Shetland Creek wildfires merged north of Spences Bridge, growing from just over 500 hectares in size to nearly 5,000.

With the massive wall of fire coming down the ridge in the Venables Valley north of Spences Bridge, a tactical evacuation was called by the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) for 76 properties. It has since been expanded to 85 properties.

In only a matter of hours, conditions turned on a dime, with winds pushing the Shetland Creek fire over a ridge and toward Mark Greenberg’s home in Venables Valley. His home was thankfully saved from the blaze.

“The flames were just visible, hundreds of feet tall,” recounted Greenberg. “We actually didn’t have an alert or order at that time but common sense is quite common — when you see the flames, it was time to start moving.”

All 76 properties within the TNRD were safely evacuated Wednesday as the fire surged toward them. The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) credited hot, dry conditions and wind in helping fan the flames.

“What we saw [Wednesday] afternoon, with the change of a very stable air mass to an unstable air mass — what that really means in simple terms is we saw an increase in wind. That increase in wind pushed that fire over the ridge, combined the Teit Creek and Shetland Creek fires together and then created a flame front that that wind had a lot of energy to push down the valley,” said BCWS Director of Operations, Cliff Chapman.

With heavy smoke filling the valley, the air support seen leaving Kamloops this morning during Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma’s press conference was sent to attack other fires, with helicopters taking the lead in Venables Valley.

“Tactical evacuations were conducted and evacuation orders and alerts are now in place,” said Ma. “This wildfire has proven to be extremely volatile and everybody in the area should leave immediately if they have not already done so.”

As of Thursday (July 18) afternoon, no structures had been lost in the fire, a true testament to the power of effective Firesmart practices. But with the fire still out of control, concern remains and evacuation alert expansion is likely.

“Really, no relief in sight in terms of the weather and certainly a potential disturbance next week once this heat wave collapses that could bring with it some vicious winds, so (we’re) keeping an eye to that as well,” said TNRD Emergency Operations Centre Director Kevin Skrepnek. “Unfortunately, with the lack of relief in sight, we have to assume this activity will continue and might have some additional areas threatened.”

There was a certain level of irony on display as the homeowners in the valley were attending a Firesmart presentation as the fire approached. Despite all the preparations he made, Greenberg said he never considered staying behind.

“Around 9:00 p.m., I was still trying to deal with my animals and some stuff at my house. My wife and kids were gone. I can’t even explain it, man. You look up on the hill and it was just [being devoured]. It was no question in my mind that it was time to leave and I would survive,” said Greenberg.

An incident management team has taken control of the fire fight for BCWS. On Thursday, more than 50 ground personnel were on scene battling the blaze, assisted by heavy machinery building fire guard and five helicopters both surveying the fire and bucketing the blaze.