A light turnout was nowhere near enough to discourage organizers and officials at the Facing the Fires thank you ceremony Wednesday night in West Kelowna.

About 250 people attended the event and the crowd looked small given the size of the 1,500-seat venue––Royal LePage Place.

According to the District of West Kelowna, however, there were no attendance expectations and the event achieved its purpose of bringing closure to the summer’s Glenrosa, Rose Valley and Terrace Mountain forest fires.

One of the most moving moments of the two-hour long event took place when West Kelowna fire chief Wayne Schnitzler took the podium. The crowd offered cheers and loud applause before his speech and a standing ovation afterwards.

The well-respected and likeable chief began with a bit of humour.

“It was the start of my holidays, which seems to be consistent with anything that happens,” said Schnitzler to laughter from the crowd.

The fire chief described July 18, the day the human-caused Glenrosa and Rose Valley forest fires broke out, as a day he will never forget. That day, the Terrace Mountain fire, which started a couple of days earlier, was also brewing in the hills above Fintry. It would grow to be the largest of the three blazes.

“Who would have expected three fires burning on the Westside of the lake in one day.”

The Glenrosa fire posed the most immediate risk to life and property that day, however; and West Kelowna fighters were soon joined by crews from Kelowna, Peachland, Lake Country, the Central Okanagan Regional District and the B.C. Forest Service.

“Our firefighters came through in the most extreme of conditions and performed with confidence and dedication. As fire chief I am very proud of our department as well as the many other departments…who came to assist us in our time of need.”

Success in fighting all fires would never have been achieved without the unified approach, noted Schnitzler. “The other thing that happened, which was fantastic when fighting the fires, we had many e-mails, phone calls from the community supporting our effort, people dropping off meals for (emergency) service personnel (and) offering accommodation for forestry fire fighters. It was just overwhelming, just like tonight is.”

After the ceremony, Schnitzler said Wednesday’s event was important for the community because no one really had the chance to come together as a large group to discuss what happened.

“It put some closure on the (fires) for me. I’m the fire chief, but, the event was still always hanging there. Tonight we all get to celebrate the successes, talk about the things that didn’t go so well; but, at the end of the day now, everyone can move on.”

Emergency Social Services director Beryl Itani, who attended but didn’t speak publicly during the event, said the ceremony was a good thing for her volunteers too. They were able to return to the building that served as the initial evacuation centre on the day the fires started.

“It was really important for us to be here with the community, to meet the people, see how they’re doing and making sure life is going on for them the way that it should,” said Itani, who recalled the significance of a similar thank you event after the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire in Kelowna, which packed Prospera Place to the rafters.

Another highlight of West Kelowna’s event was a presentation of video footage and photographs from the forest fires, compiled by former teacher turned fire captain, Bob Peters.

The crowd was fixated on the images, which were played on a giant screen and set to The Climb by Miley Cyrus—a song about climbing life’s mountains against adversity and finding success on the other side after the uphill battle.

“Everyone that sees that video––you get chills up your spine,” said Schnitzler.

Three homes were destroyed by the Glenrosa fire, including that of community stalwart Ron Gorman.

Gorman’s employees rushed down to save the company’s mill, a West Kelowna economic driver, which was being threatened by flaming embers, jumping the flanks that had kept firefighters busy.

West Kelowna administrator Jason Johnson said everyone who sprang to action during the fires did “a magnificent job.”

“You are our heroes,” said Johnson.

At the height of the 107-hectare Rose Valley and the 300-hectare Glenrosa events on July 20, more than 12,000 people were evacuated and another 6,000 were on alert to leave home at a moment’s notice, placing half the municipality’s population under direct threat from the two blazes.

The 9,200-hectare Terrace Mountain fire forced a further 3,700 evacuations and evacuation alerts in the following two to three weeks, in the North Westside community.

No homes were lost in the other two blazes, and no life was lost in any of the three battles.

jluciw@kelownacapnews.com