‘Burned to dust’: 1 month after McDougall Creek fire, a long road to recovery

It has been one month since the McDougall Creek wildfire devastated West Kelowna and surrounding areas, and residents are reflecting on the difficult road forward.

It has been one month since the McDougall Creek wildfire roared into West Kelowna, B.C., leaving a path of destroyed homes and livelihoods in its wake.

Among those still reeling from the devastation is Jeff Findlay, a former RCMP officer who has operated a popular trail-riding horse ranch in Bear Creek for nearly a decade.

“It was burned to dust. It looks like Mars. Like a nuclear bomb was dropped in there. Everything is dead,” Findlay said of his home, barn and the 600 acres of land the Broken Rail Ranch leased for trail riding.

“This is my life … gone just like that.”

For the past month, Findlay has spent his days visiting the 20 horses he and his wife are now boarding in southeast Kelowna.

The couple were able to save every single horse, after following their instincts to begin evacuating the animals on the morning of Aug. 18, before the fire ripped into the community.

“By the time we got the horses out, the fire came over the ridge. You could see it burning down towards our houses, our neighbourhood — there’s about 50 houses in there, I think 80 per cent of them burned,” he told Global News.

The couple spent two weeks living out of suitcases in a hotel room, and are now doing the same from a friend’s house.