Sense of calm spreads through Lytton despite Saw Creek wildfire burning nearby

Just over a week ahead of the fifth anniversary of the fire that razed Lytton, the village is watching a wildfire burn on the nearby mountain slopes. The Saw Creek wildfire has burned 704 hectares as of Monday (June 22) with the BC Wildfire Service working to slow the spread.

A sense of calm and blue skies enveloped Lytton Monday despite the nearby wildfire.

“We are all on alert. I think we are on alert all summer, typically. Right?” Lytton mayor Denise O’Connor told CFJC News. “BCWS has a good handle on it. Anything can happen anytime. We know that. We are going to be watching the weather. Today, it’s beautiful. There isn’t a lot of wind and we don’t anticipate it will pick up much today, but who knows down the road.”

“I would recommend everybody stay vigilant. It looks like we are out of the woods but please stay vigilant. I think we might be in for a rough summer,” added TNRD Area ‘I’ Director Tricia Thorpe.

Sadly for the village and surrounding community, wildfire response has become all too common.

“It still has an impact on the community but I think we moved much more quickly now and we have become much more cohesive in our response,” Thorpe told CFJC News.

Within the village, Mayor O’Connor was able to confirm no loss of structures. Area ‘I’ was not as lucky.

 (Facebook / Shirley Karhu Mackay)

“I can publicly say now that there has been some structure loss. We have lost one residence,” said Thorpe.

Perhaps helping save countless other homes was FireSmart work recently completed.

“FireSmarting done a couple of years ago, when they had done a lot of thinning,” said O’Connor. “The fire took off up the hill from there, and as you can see, it’s quite high up so we did lift the order yesterday at 7:00 a.m. [We hadn’t kept it on] because the fire was so close… but there was a lot of activity – hoses and firefighters accessing the hill above.”

“But because there had been mitigation done, it kind of makes the fire move slower. It’s a cooler impact, which I think in turn allowed wildfire crews to direct the fire up and around the community,” added Thorpe.

With summer just beginning and temperatures on the rise, the hope is the BCWS helicopter drum overhead will soon fade back to the hum of construction and the sound of a rebuild five years in the making.