B.C. fire leaves empty foundations, vehicle frames and blackened trees, video shows

PENTICTON — Video footage shot in the small British Columbia community of Faulder after a wildfire tore through late Friday shows empty foundations, the skeletal remains of vehicles and an occasional patch of green the flames missed.

The wildfire began to surge around dinnertime and by midnight a mass evacuation was launched for thousands in the Summerland and Peachland areas on the west shores of Okanagan Lake.

Faulder, west of Summerland, was one of the first communities to be overrun. Will Roelfsema supplied the video, saying it was taken by relatives still in the area.

The footage shot from a vehicle rolling down a street reveals the randomness of the fire’s destruction, with blackened ground leading up to a green mowed lawn. No homes were left in the 70-second video, but a plywood shed was left standing alone.

Roelfsema declined an interview Sunday, saying in a statement that he and his family were exhausted.

“We’ve had to evacuate twice now in the last two days and haven’t gotten much sleep, especially since some of our family is still out there at Darke Lake,” he said of an area that is under evacuation order because of the Bald Range fire.

The fire exploded in size to more than 100 square kilometres by Saturday afternoon, while the BC Wildfire Service said it had grown to 136 square kilometres on Sunday.

Officials said there had been “significant structure loss” and declared a provincial state of emergency on Saturday as more than 100 wildfires burn in the province, with almost half of them out of control.

RCMP have said they were working to confirm a report that one person died in the fire west of Summerland.

Erin Carlson, an evacuee from Summerland, said her family plans to rebuild the structures they lost from their business, Carcajou Fruit Company Ltd., including their cold storage, packing house and facilities used by their employees.

The business employs workers from Mexico, many of whom had to be rescued by helicopter as the flames advanced, Carlson said.

“It was more than 30 people. I don’t know the exact number,” she said in an interview outside the evacuation centre in Penticton on Sunday.

But at least half of the people rescued by helicopter from the Faulder and Meadow Valley areas were from the family’s operation, she said.

The government said Saturday that more than 50 people needed to be rescued by helicopter when the wildfire surged.

Doug Holmes, mayor of the District of Summerland, said initially he wasn’t “too concerned” about the fire sparked about 15 kilometres outside his community.

But within two hours, that had changed.

“It had spread so quickly, it had reached Summerland already, and that’s when people were starting to panic a little bit,” Holmes said in an interview on Sunday outside the evacuation centre.

Some slept on air mattresses with their pets inside, while others set up their trailers and camper vans in the parking lot.

Holmes said it looked like the fire was burning along the whole western edge of his community that is nestled along the shores of Okanagan Lake.

“You could just see flames, no matter where you looked on the horizon … it was just flames coming down coming towards you.”

An emergency centre was initially established in Summerland, but by midnight, the decision was made to evacuate the whole town.

“It was quite a thing seeing 12,000 people all leaving at the same time, packing up their homes and neighbours helping neighbours, helping the elderly,” Holmes said.

The mayor said he hadn’t been back to the community, as the fire continued to burn out of control.

It was too soon to take account of the toll in Summerland, which remains an active fire zone, but homes have been lost, he said.

Holmes encouraged community members to continue supporting each other, saying “the best in people” comes out in times of crisis and that was evident during the evacuation.

“I think when we need go back to (the) community, we might have to rebuild, but we’ll do it and by working together and being … the good people that we are.”

Carlson said she expects the devastation caused by the fire will be traumatic for residents.

“We’ve been watching that hillside dry out for a really long time and there’s obviously always the fear that fire will happen, but the size and scope and speed at which this thing moved, I think it took, well I know it took everybody by surprise,” she said.

“It was really hard to watch, and I don’t know how we process trauma like that, but hopefully as a community we can work on it.”

The home Carlson grew up in survived the inferno, as did her current home closer to Summerland, she said, adding the fire came “very close.”

The BC Wildfire Service’s map showing the perimeter of the fire suggested the fire tore through homes in northwest parts of Summerland before reaching the lake. Videos posted to social media showed multiple homes ablaze as residents fled.

Sunday’s firefight was expected to be “challenging due to shifting winds, the service said in an update posted online.

“If skies clear, fire behaviour will increase significantly due to the breaking of an inversion and resulting in increased winds.”

Penticton remained covered in a thick blanket of smoke Sunday, with the service saying poor visibility was hampering aerial operations.

About 10,000 homes are under evacuation order in Summerland, Peachland, the regional districts of Okanagan-Similkameen and Central Okanagan, and on Penticton Indian Band lands.

More than 3,200 homes are subject to lower-level evacuation alerts that stretch north past Peachland to Highway 97C, and south past Penticton along the city’s western outskirts.

Greg Krauter, who was outside the evacuation centre in Penticton surrounded by six of his seven goats, said he watched the fire much of Friday night from his property on the crest of a hill in Summerland and knew it was time to leave when the power went out.

He remained in Summerland until later Saturday and felt confident his own home was untouched by the blaze, he said.

But a survey of the area revealed still-burning tree stumps and a fiery geyser of natural gas burning at one home, Krauter said.

The BC Wildfire Service has said the fire started Friday afternoon, but Krauter said he saw smoke earlier in the day from his home that overlooks the valley.

“The waterbombers didn’t start right away. It was a long time before the waterbombers showed up.”

The Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society has meanwhile said the fire swept through its facility in Summerland so fast, “there was no time to pack anything besides the animals and ourselves.”

A post on the society’s Facebook page said security cameras showed the facility engulfed in flames before the power went out and everything went black.

The Bald Range blaze is one of four wildfires of note in the province, all of them threatening homes or communities.

The massive Pear Lake blaze has destroyed structures on about 120 properties in the Clinton area, part of the province’s south Cariboo region.

The Bradley Creek Wildfire that raced through the Okanagan Indian Band reserve on Aug. 1, destroying more than 200 homes, has been classified as being held to its current perimeter.

The wildfire service said Sunday that it was expecting “high potential” for blazes caused by lightning strikes, particularly in the central Interior and Okanagan regions.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2026.