When a wildfire came to my remote B.C. community, residents headed to the frontlines

This story is part of In the Line of Fire, a series from The Narwhal digging into what is being done to prepare for — and survive — wildfires.

Editor’s note: An evacuation order for Argenta was issued early on July 25, affecting 191 properties in the settlement and nearby community of Johnsons Landing.

Visit The Narwhal’s B.C. wildfire page for a real-time map and the latest news and resources.

On the night of July 17, a massive lightning storm rolled across the Kootenay region of B.C.’s southeast Interior, lighting up the darkness and setting dry hillsides ablaze. In my small, end-of-the-road community of Argenta, home to approximately 150 people, we awoke to at least four fires burning on the mountain directly above our homes.

It’s something many of us have been waiting for, recognizing it as an inevitable reality of living so intimately with the forests we love so dearly. It’s also something we prepared for.

With over 200 strikes reported and little rain to accompany them, mountain sides were set on fire near villages and cities that included Nelson, Silverton, Meadow Creek and New Denver. 

For more than two decades, Argenta has been developing a local wildfire crew. It’s made up of approximately 20 community members who gather once a year to get their S100 and S185 firefighting certifications. As part of the annual training, almost always held in May, people participate in a mock fire drill imagined by Rik Valentine, the course instructor and a resident of Argenta since the 1950s. 

Valentine describes the scenario: where the fire is, where the nearest water source is and what the best plan of attack might be. People are divided up into crews with assigned crew bosses and an incident commander. Pulaskis, shovels, piss cans, relay tanks, pillow tanks, pumps, fuel, fittings and an assortment of hoses — wigglers, econoline and big-inch to name a few — are loaded into trucks at the red fire shed next to the community hall before they convoy down dirt roads towards a fake fire somewhere on the mountain, marked out with flagging tape.

The idea of the community fire crew was born out of necessity. Houses and cabins in Argenta dot small clearings, surrounded by thick forest that hasn’t seen a devastating wildfire since the early 1900s. According to Valentine, in the 1970s and 1980s Argenta and the surrounding communities were home to several crews that would fight fires over the summer. As teenagers, he and his brother Ray were often called out, working alongside “old-timers” who shared their firefighting knowledge and familiarity with the landscape.

As this style of community response faded with increased regulations and certification requirements, Valentine and Argenta’s fire ranger Richard Brenton decided they should begin fostering their own crew. A grant from the BC Gaming Commission funded construction of a fire shed and the annual training began. Although the crew has responded successfully to several fires, for the past 20 years we have largely been practicing. That all changed on the night of July 17.

The next morning, knowing the BC Wildfire Service would be stretched thin across the province, our crew was set in motion. By 10 a.m., our crew was driving up a woodlot road to a fire that had been assessed by two senior crew members as something we could effectively suppress. By noon, danger trees had been felled by our two local power saw operators and hoses were being laid. A water source had been identified lower down on the road and soon three pickup trucks with 100 gallon and 150 gallon pillow tanks in their beds were ferrying water to a relay tank near the base of the fire. From there, water was pumped up the mountain. When a BC Wildfire Service crew from Revelstoke arrived in the mid-afternoon, the fire was largely contained — although two larger fires to the south roared on.

Throughout the day, on the top of the hour, our crew chiefs were in radio contact with our team of local dispatchers to update progress and verify the safety of everyone on the ground. Our incident commander was also in contact with the BC Wildfire Service, which was viewing the fire from the air. 

When we finally went home late that evening, the fire, which had grown to nearly a hectare, was smoldering, with a fire guard encircling most of it.

It is in these moments that my love for this community, already deep and wide, is strengthened. There is an incredible power in self-governance and grassroots action. There is a profound connection working alongside your neighbours in the face of uncertainty. I haven’t teared up while editing photos in a while but these ones brought my emotions to the forefront. The sleep deprivation and steady stress certainly contributed, but mostly there is just an incredible sense of love and appreciation for this place and the people with whom I share it.

On Friday morning, we returned. After several hours of work the fire was greatly reduced and there was almost no smoke. Then the wind picked up. The nearest fire to the south began to roar, smoke billowed above our heads and the call came down from the ministry that it was time for our crew to leave. Within 20 minutes, our trucks were loaded and we were gathered in a clearcut down the road, watching skimmer planes and helicopters equipped with Bambi Buckets attack the fire from the air.

Since then, the fires have grown and merged despite the plentiful resources mobilized by the BC Wildfire Service. On July 22, the fire cluster, now mapped at 400 hectares, continued to spread horizontally across the mountainside. The situation is now far beyond the scope of our little crew. While no evacuation alerts or orders in place, people are on edge and doing the best they can to prepare for a shift in wind direction that could see the fire descend towards our community.

This combination of local initiative and government resources could — and should — be a path forward as wildfire seasons grow hotter and longer thanks in large part to climate change. This year, the province of B.C. announced a new pilot program called Cooperative Community Wildfire Response, with the aim of fostering localized fire brigades in Indigenous and non-Indigenous rural communities. According to a BC Wildfire Service information sheet, the program seeks to build on “what already exists, for both Indigenous and rural, non-Indigenous community wildfire response, in co-operation with BC Wildfire Service.” It also acknowledges the value of “local and Traditional Knowledge and experience in fire management.”

Speaking after a long day coordinating local efforts to firesmart our community hall, Valentine, who also worked as our local fire warden for 13 years before retiring in 2021, tells me how much he appreciates seeing our crew in action. “I like to see [how we] get different people with different levels of experience and capabilities in situations where we try to foster working together without jockeying for position. You can think things through to the death, but when you start working with someone everything changes.”

Near the end of our phone call, with both of our voices betraying our exhaustion, he adds the evolution of the Argenta Fire Crew is basically a good luck story founded in hard work directed at addressing a need. “You start doing it and then people see the need and wisdom of it and they start getting involved — which gets us to where we are today.”

Yesterday evening, fanned by wind, the fire began to move down Mount Willet towards Argenta. B.C.’s wildfire map pegged the blaze at 735 hectares but it’s likely quite a bit bigger since no-one has been able to do reconnaissance since yesterday afternoon or evening. BC Wildfire Service crews have had to pull back from higher up the mountain and have scheduled a community meeting at the Argenta community hall. 

I’m heading out with the crew to start laying hoses from Argenta Creek, where many residents get their water. It’s supposed to be windy but I’ve also heard there may be rain in the forecast, so we’ll see what the day brings.

I’ll let you know when we get off the mountain.