One year after Juniper fire, city and residents more aware of risk

Photo: Daniel Gottfriedson

This photo, taken from across the South Thompson River, shows the hillside between Juniper Ridge and Valleyview lit up by orange flames on the night of July 1, 2021.

It was late in the evening last Canada Day when Madyson Cavaliere, saying goodbye to some friends who had stopped by her East Juniper home to celebrate the holiday, saw a neighbour come running.

Remembering the events of July 1, 2021, the vice chair for the Juniper Ridge Community Association said she didn’t believe it at first when her neighbour told her she needed to evacuate the area.

“We went and checked out what she meant, and the fire was right at the top of our streets. So we kind of went into panic mode,” Cavaliere said.

“I had my two kids and my sister's two kids at my house. So we packed up the four kids — who were sleeping — grabbed everything we could, all of our animals. … And then when we went to leave, we were stuck right at the top of our street.”

It’s been one year since the Kamloops East Interface Fire, as the blaze is officially known, was sparked by a lightning strike. It lit up the hillside between Juniper Ridge and Valleyview.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the fire burning intensely in about one hectare of brush — about the size of a soccer field. The blaze moved north toward Valleyview as police went door to door in parts of Juniper and Valleyview, telling residents to evacuate.

Many residents attempting to leave via Highland Road — the only main route connecting Juniper Ridge to the rest of the city — sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic, some for nearly two hours.

“When we did finally turn [on to Qu’Appelle Boulevard], it probably took about another hour, hour and a half to actually get out of Juniper,” Cavaliere said.

“With four young children all under the age of four. It was really frightening for us.”

East Juniper resident Joanne Atherton said in past years, she was evacuated from Bachelor Heights due to a wildfire, so when she saw the glow of the Kamloops East Interface fire, she knew what to pack.

Atherton said she left with her son — her husband was to follow — and drove down Qu’Appelle, where traffic was stopped and car horns were blaring, increasing her anxiety.

“We can see to the right of us the glow of what was happening. We just wanted to get past the fire.”

Atherton said she was “so angry” about the slow-moving evacuation route, noting her son said things to her “a child shouldn’t be worried about.”

“Afterwards, when the city turned around and said that everything went to plan, that made me pretty angry," she said.

"Because from someone who lives on this side of the fire with no way out, it did not.”

Coun. Arjun Singh was acting as deputy mayor on July 1 when he saw a “wall of flames” rise up between Valleyview and Juniper.

Singh said police were “working very diligently” along with bylaws to handle evacuations, but understood the high amount of anxiety experienced by residents as they were trying to leave Juniper.

Former Kamloops Fire Rescue chief Steve Robinson said in October that the early activation of Kamloops’ Emergency Operations Centre helped firefighters ensure no homes, lives or infrastructure were lost in the fire, although it came close to dozens of houses.

Robinson said the response to a call for off-duty staff was “overwhelming,” and the city’s civic operations department helped supply significant amounts of water to douse the flames.

Days after the event, the city said it would fast-track implementing Voyent — an emergency communications tool — and constructing a previously planned, paved egress road to and from Juniper Ridge.

According to a report prepared by the city, the Galore Drive emergency access — connecting West Juniper and Rose Hill — is now paved and ready for use. Three other routes are in progress, including two others in West Juniper and the Juniper East emergency access road.

For the Juniper East route, The city said construction is underway on 500 metres of road through city land, and this portion is expected to be complete this summer. The city is also finalizing a license agreement to construct the rest of the road through a private gravel pit.

Atherton said as the East Juniper road is yet to be completed, she has concerns that, should a similar event happen this year, the same issues would persist.

“There's a lot of houses from here to Highland. If we had another fire again, in that same area and say it spread across, we would be trapped,” Atherton said.

She noted the city’s fire proofing assessments have been helpful, but she would like to see the city outline evacuation procedures for the neighbourhood.

“It seems like a year has passed and we're still waiting with our fingers crossed, hoping it isn’t going to happen again.”

Cavaliere said she is now more aware of what she needs to do as an individual to prepare for an emergency.

“It sort of took this fire to realize how stuck we were up here,” Cavaliere said, adding she is happy the city is working on egress roads.

“I'm really excited that they're happening. And I know they probably can't happen any faster. But part of me still wishes they would happen faster.”

When asked how he felt the event changed Kamloops, Singh said it underscored how important it is to be prepared with immediate responses for a sudden emergency event.

“I think we've become more understanding of the risk — which is a lot more,” Singh said, noting climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events.

“And we're becoming more understanding that we have to prepare for that risk.”