1 year ago today: McDougall Creek wildfire races into West Kelowna

On Aug. 16, 2023, Kelowna marked the 20-year anniversary of the Okanagan Mountain Park firestorm.

As this happened, a small wildfire that was sparked by lightning a few kilometres behind West Kelowna was quietly growing in size.

The McDougall Creek wildfire was discovered on Aug. 15, 2023, but it wasn’t until two days later, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023, that all hell broke loose.

Almost exactly 20 years after the historic 2003 blaze, it was firestorm 2.0 for the Central Okanagan, as the McDougall Creek wildfire ended up destroying nearly 200 structures on the Westside and jumping Okanagan Lake to wreak havoc in Kelowna and Lake Country as well.

Strong westerly winds pushed the fire toward West Kelowna on that fateful Thursday night, covering several kilometres in a matter of hours before flames crested the hill above Westside Road in the early evening.

As tens of thousands of West Kelowna residents fled their homes, people in Kelowna and Lake Country watched in horror as the flames quickly spread down the hill towards the lake and travelled north.

There was no immediate reprieve, the fire spreading aggressively as darkness fell upon the Central Okanagan, ripping through Raymer Bay, Bear Creek, Traders Cove and Wilson's Landing.

It reached as far north as Lake Okanagan Resort, destroying the historic venue and the nearby Okanagan Anglican Camp that had been a beloved summer getaway for tens of thousands of kids over several decades.

“[It was] one of the most challenging nights of firefighting in our history,” West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund said the next morning. “It was 100 years worth of firefighting in one night.”

In Traders Cove, trapped residents reportedly had to flee the fire by jumping into Okanagan Lake and boats were called upon to help those people get to safety.

Three months after the fire, Brolund told KelownaNow that his biggest fear that night and the following morning was loss of life.

Fortunately, no deaths or even serious injuries were reported from the McDougall Creek wildfire, which Brolund called a “a testament to literally thousands of people.”

Structure on fire in Traders Cove area.#BCWildfire #Kelowna pic.twitter.com/asjkdDy8gX

— KelownaNow (@KelownaNow) August 18, 2023

For most of the evening, the focus was entirely centred around West Kelowna, but that changed shortly before 10 pm as the fire did what many hadn't even considered until it actually happened.

It jumped the lake.

Powerful winds carried embers from West Kelowna more than two kilometres over Okanagan Lake, resulting in a pair of fires starting in Glenmore and Lake Country.

All of a sudden the sleepless night for West Kelowna residents became a sleepless night for their neighbours on the east side of the lake, as thousands were forced to evacuate on short notice.

While the general chaos of the evening began to calm a bit around 2 am, firefighters spent the entire night battling to save as many homes as they could in all three Central Okanagan municipalities.

Over the coming days and weeks, their heroic actions came to light through security cameras and stories, at the same time as the catastrophic damage started to reveal itself as well.

The two fires in Kelowna and Lake Country were held before the end of August, but it took until Sept. 21 for the McDougall Creek wildfire to receive the same classification.

In total, the three wildfires burned around 15,000 hectares of land and destroyed around 200 structures, nearly all of those two numbers courtesy of the McDougall Creek wildfire.

Much like the Okanagan Mountain Park firestorm in 2003, the McDougall Creek firestorm of 2023 will be remembered for years to come.

And while the focus of those memories will often surround the tragic and destructive nature of the blaze, we’d be remiss if we didn’t also reflect on the heroic efforts of first responders and the community coming together in the face of one of the worst disasters the region has ever seen.