Fire surrounded home

A Peachland resident was able to return home after being evacuated due to a raging wildfire and was very lucky to find her house still standing.

It was July 18, when Savana Penner looked up at Highway 97 from her home on Brent Road and saw flames just above her.

“I could actually see flames jumping on the hillside and a whole bunch of smoke,” she said.

An evacuation order at 10 p.m., said residents living at 7100 to 72100 Brent Road had to leave immediately because the Mount Eneas wildfire was getting dangerously close.

But Penner didn’t realize just how close, until she returned home four days later on Saturday.

“We looked over the bank and saw this,” she says.

Flames jumped over her home and landed on the hillside 20 metres away from her backdoor.

“We realize how lucky we really are,” she said. “Our staircase is burnt to a crisp and our electric supply to our water pump is burnt out.”

Penner spoke to firefighters who said there was no path from the fire and she was lucky embers didn’t land on her home.

“I actually found the guy who put the fire out so it was nice to thank him,” she said.

BC Wildfire Service incident commander Glen Burgess said no primary residences were destroyed, but some small outbuildings and a few vehicles were in the early days of the fire.

“No primary residence, which is great,” he said.

Burgess is crediting the Peachland Fire Department to saving the homes along Highway 97.

"I think that speaks great to those partners in local governments and the Peachland Fire Department in particular who deployed on some homes and in all likelihood saved them.”

Penner said she is blessed and very lucky.

“I obviously have some good karma out there,” she said.