[Sa'ar Chasm]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]I'm back in Kelowna now. I got in yesterday, and saw a huge column of smoke from the bus. There still appear to be trees, although it was hard to tell what colour they were through the haze and tinted windows. I got here just in time for a flare up. I could see massive flames two or three ridges to the east. The fire seems to be lurching at random in massive strides. Today five trestles from the Kettle Valley Railway, built in 1914-16 and now used as a tourist attraction, were burned. It's unlikely they'll be replaced. Most of the evacuees had gone home, but now they've evacuated 3200 or so people for a second time, and put 9000 more on alert. My parents have been on alert ever since they moved back in. The western edge of the new evacuation zone is not too far from us. This is just a precaution, since the fire is still 5km away from any houses. It seems fairly quiet today. The main thrust is well east of me, but there was smoke rising from the hills above my house and considerable helicopter activity. It's my understanding that this was a burnoff operation. There's no glow on the horizon tonight. There's nothing on the horizon tonight, actually - there's nothing but smoke. This means that the wind is blowing north, but there's very little breeze out there right now. The moon is a lurid red.

I went for a walk today to survey the devastation. It was surreal. Most homes were either unscathed or totally destroyed. The only in-between was some scorched and melted siding next to a ash-filled crater. The fire seemed rather capricious as it moved through - in the middle of a row of pits will be a pristine house. Most of the lawns are untouched as well, although it looks like a few cedars went up like torches. In less-affected areas, there's a single torched house on an untouched street. There's also treed lot that was meant to be a school site. It was never developed, and covered with a thick layer of duff. That duff is now gone, and a lot of the trees appear to be dying. On the other side of the subdivision is a steep sandy embankment overlooking a creek. That embankment was covered with 20 years' accumulation of grass clippings and raked needles. It got a bunch of houses along the edge, and came damned close to getting more. Only through heroic firefighter intervention was the neighbourhood saved. If it had gotten into the older part of Crawford - where my house is - it would have run amok through the cedar shingles, dried-out pine trees and piles of desiccated yard waste. Further north is mostly undeveloped thick forest and dead grass. We were damn lucky.[/colorost_uid0]