Venables Valley resident Mark Greenberg is still trying to come to terms with how he and his family move forward after losing his home to the massive Shetland Creek wildfire.
After being forced to flee the fast-moving flames, Greenberg was allowed back into the community near Ashcroft so he could see if it was still standing.
“To my amazement, everything was there,” he said.
“You could drive through the valley floor and not even know there was a forest fire. Except like the fact that there was smoke in there. It had stopped, the fire. It stopped… So I was quite shocked and rushed back to tell everybody that, hey, the valley survived.”
But the winds picked up again and the wildfire tore through the community.
“We lost homes,” Greenberg said, holding back tears. “There is a lot of destruction, around 90 per cent of the forest, a third of our community is displaced in one way or another, some animals didn’t make it, the fence line, all the regular stuff, you know.”
He said since that wildfire event, some more structures have been lost and the fire is still exhibiting unpredictable behaviour.
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“There’s not a lot left to burn. But it is burning quite aggressively. Like South Venables, southeast side from the river to basically our valley,” Greenberg said. “Maybe even down towards Spences Bridge but I’m not 100-per cent sure.”
The Shetland Creek wildfire is now 22,476.6 hectares in size, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
Greenberg said the community members of about 30 families meet every day for lunch or dinner and they try to keep each other’s spirits up.
“Even for myself, having been there, the real kind of realization of the tragedy and the trauma and the shock, that’s still to come.”
Greenberg said they have vowed to rebuild the community once they are allowed back into the region.
“It’s not easy living off-grid,” he said. “You do everything yourself. We build our water infrastructure, we build our own energy systems. So, you know we’re a hardy bunch, which is good because there’s a lot of energy, there’s a lot of sadness but there’s a lot of energy to build back.”
Greenberg said he thinks the fire in Venables Valley will be in the mop-up stage by next week.
“One home or 10, it doesn’t make a difference to me,” he said.
“The family and the kids, I think of them as my kids and those parents think of my kids as their kids. So it’s super upsetting that family might not be there this winter, their kids won’t be in the school, they won’t be playing.”
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