Okanagan woman’s items salvaged from 2023 wildfire going to New York

The now sentimental pieces are making their way all the way to New York for a pop-up exhibit highlighting the human costs of climate related events.

For Heather MacKay, digging through ashes of what was once her home in West Kelowna, B.C., was emotional.

Her home was among those destroyed by last summer’s McDougall Creek wildfire.

“It was depressing,” MacKay told Global News. “I just remember I could hardly breathe because everything was just gone.”

Everything was lost except for a few small items the hair stylist managed to find and now holds very dear to her heart.

“Some of my seasonal salt and pepper shakers, and I could see a little peach trinket dish I had by the bathroom sink,” MacKay said.

Amid the pile of debris, MacKay also found a Christmas ornament.

“This one little tiny gnome that was inside of a snow globe. It looks like a charcoal briquette, but I kept it,” she said.

The now sentimental pieces are making their way all the way to New York for a pop-up exhibit highlighting the human costs of climate-related events.