VANCOUVER — Most of the 12,000 or so residents of Summerland, B.C., are able to return home today, more than 10 days after they were chased out by one of the fastest-moving wildfires the province has ever seen.

The district of Summerland says the evacuation orders covering much of the community came down at 7 a.m., replaced with evacuation alerts warning residents to remain ready to leave at short notice.

Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene says 3,000 properties were taken off the evacuation list on Tuesday morning.

Greene says it’s news the community has been waiting for and the return will be conducted in stages.

Evacuation orders remain in place for Garnet Valley Road and about a dozen other properties in Summerland, as well as others to the west outside the community boundaries.

The lifting of evacuation orders comes after regional officials provided their first tally of the destruction caused by the Bald Range fire, saying 150 structures were destroyed or lost.

Graham Statt, chief administrative officer for the District of Summerland, said late Monday that the fire destroyed or damaged about 40 structures in Summerland and more than 100 others in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, where the community of Faulder was almost erased.

Statt told a district livestream late Monday that 150 structures is a preliminary number and damage assessments typically increase over time.

“Everyone we can get a hold of, or has contacted us back, we’ve had conversations with. We have counselling available for those individuals,” he said.

“We go on-site with them if they wish to do so, and if they don’t wish to do so, we offer photographs or other things for their use.”

Denise Trudeau and her family spent the last 36 years creating a home in Faulder.

She said the property started out as an affectionately-described “dumpty” trailer to live in, and a shed for horses’ tack on the property later grew to include a riding ring and then a home with a deck where decades of memories were made.

Trudeau says she’s seen photos and videos that tell her what they built is now gone.

“I did see videos of people driving by our property and I did seen pictures and it’s pretty much confirmed in my mind there’s … it’s like the house just went into a puff of smoke and the barn, everything. It’s gone,” she said.

About 20,000 people were forced to evacuate as the fire roared toward Okanagan Lake on Aug. 7.

It sprinted the 15 kilometres to the lake in a few hours, sweeping over dozens of homes in Meadow Valley and Faulder and reducing most of the homes to blackened foundations.

Trudeau said in an interview on Tuesday that her property was still under an evacuation order and that it’s unknown when she would be able to return.

She said she and her husband left in a panic with some clothes and important documents as the fire got closer, and they were able to safely evacuate their horses.

“It was so fast. It was like a tornado coming. It just — you wouldn’t have believed how fast that came,” she said,

Faulder is a community of about 200 residents and Trudeau said the self-reliant group is doing what it can to support each other even if they can’t be together yet.

Online groups provide the chance to connect and tell their neighbours that they are safe, she said.

“So we’ve checked in on each other. … We’re not in a position really to help each other financially, but we’re at least able to connect on Facebook and we will of course connect physically once we’re allowed to be out there,” she said.

Greene said at a wildfire update on Tuesday that about 2,100 properties remain on evacuation orders across B.C.

Statt said the decision on when to lift orders was made based on factors including whether utilities are ready, if there are dangerous trees in the way, or if there are concerns about slope stability.

Erick Thompson, a spokesperson for the regional district, said during the livestream that there are also stories of firefighters being able to protect some homes.

“What I saw in Summerland, in particular, was I saw homes where the hills around it were blackened, but the homes were there, and they were blackened because the fire was coming down, and the firefighters saved those structures,” he said.

“That’s an incredible, incredible story.”

Trudeau said she has every intention of rebuilding and returning to her community once she’s allowed to return.

She said people have suggested she may have to leave the community, but she said that’s not an option.

“It’s just not ever going to happen for me and my husband.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2026.

— With files by Darryl Greer