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The flames moved so fast our story could barely keep up.
On Sunday, our audience engagement editor, Karan Saxena, spotted an Instagram post from photographer and Narwhal contributor Louis Bockner. Louis is part of a volunteer fire crew in his 150-person hometown of Argenta, in southeast British Columbia — a team in the midst of helping battle fires triggered by a massive lightning storm.
“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,” Louis wrote. “It’s also something we prepared for.”
Louis agreed to pen a first-person account for The Narwhal, piecing together a harrowing, photo-filled story in between shifts fighting the fire along with BC Wildfire Service crews.
By Monday, a cluster of fires near Argenta had merged and grown to 400 hectares in size. By Wednesday night, it had grown out of control to at least 735 hectares — the equivalent of nearly 1,400 football fields. Then, around 1 a.m. this morning, an evacuation order was issued for Argenta and the nearby community of Johnsons Landing.
In a phone call late this afternoon, Louis told us “it all just happened so fast.” He tried to go to bed last night, but couldn’t sleep because of the roar of the flames. Then his crew radio “started going crazy” and “it was all pretty hectic.” Driven by wind, the fire had exploded. Louis and others drove door to door, telling people to leave.
About 15 members of the volunteer crew, including Louis, are still in Argenta, helping battle the flames and tackling spot fires. The winds have died down and it’s a bit cooler, but the fire is still out of control. “I’m totally exhausted but okay,” Louis said.
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The recurring effects of wildfire season in Canada — just turn to 25,000 people fleeing Jasper, Alta., where flames are engulfing the iconic park destination — have become so widespread that we don’t have to look far here at The Narwhal to find staff connected to the impacts.
In Lardeau, just across the lake from Argenta, the uncle of our Prairies bureau chief, Sharon Riley, has set up sprinklers throughout his community and is housing some of her cousins who evacuated from nearby Slocan Lake — where a wildfire burned their property (their house was okay; they cut down all the trees a few years ago fearing such blazes).
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Meanwhile, in Calgary, reporter Drew Anderson is off today, keeping his kids inside because of the thick smoke and ash coating things outside.
“At least all the smoke that’s making it hard to breathe is blocking some of the sun so my house isn’t as unbearably hot as it has been,” Drew, never one to let a bleak situation pass without comment, wrote on our work Slack last night.
All the news is a lot, and there’s still plenty of fire season to come. There is much to do, both in the immediate response on the ground and in strengthening resilience for a future where these wildfires and other extreme weather events (hello, Toronto flooding) are increasingly part of our shared reality.
Amid the heaviness, I’m still finding hope in these reflections from Louis on the work of the volunteer crew in Argenta.
“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.”
Louis continued: “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.”
Take care and care for your community,
Arik Ligeti
Director of audience
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On protecting what we treasure
As wildfires raze numerous parts of Canada, I can’t help but think back to our collaboration with The Globe and Mail profiling Karsten Heuer, a lifelong Rockies conservation icon. Heuer faces a terminal neurological disease, and expects to be dead by this fall. Drew’s piece dives into his life’s work — how Heuer spent decades working on large-landscape-scale conservation, led a program reintroducing bison to the Banff backcountry and spent months trekking in the Yellowstone to Yukon corridor to raise awareness for its preservation.
Here’s one reader comment from The Globe’s website that hits close to home, with news about blazes being top of mind:
“Thank you Globe and Mail and Drew Anderson for this beautifully written piece telling the story of a truly passionate and brave Canadian, a man who has devoted his life to understanding and preserving our natural world. In honouring Mr. Heuer, not only must we make a commitment to take action when we can but we must push our governments to invest in and actively protect what we treasure. We owe it to our children and to generations to come.”
If you haven’t checked it out yet, go read Drew’s profile of Karsten Heuer.
— Karan Saxena, audience engagement editor
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