August 10, 2021 Dan’s Story…

Dan leaned on his shovel and watched the flames burn the slope on the other side of the highway.  The fire threatened everything Dan had, it scorched his world and all he knew.

The massive forest fire raged toward the town of Monte Lake and the Paxton Valley nestled in the heartland of BC between Kamloops and Vernon. An evacuation order was in effect for all of the areas in the path of the raging disaster.

An order that Dan refused to listen to.

Dan looked at the man holding the camera with a determined gleam in his eyes. “When it gets too hot and I gotta go, I’ll go. But no politician or bureaucrat is going to tell me to go. I don’t appreciate being called stupid or a fool because I stayed to save my house and my livestock.”

The cameraman looked past his lens and replied to Dan. “Some would say it’s a society of soft, weak men who would…”

Dan growled back, “soft men make soft people. That’s what’s happened to us. We’ve become soft, no risk, no risk, no risk. That’s what keeps you going, a little bit of risk, you know, keeps you alive. Makes you think… So you can be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Instead of having somebody else looking after ya.”

Dan turned his back and walked away from the camera. He stared into the flames, a ball of anger and frustration stuck inside his throat. He thought back to the events of the last week. He never imagined what it would have been like to stare down a raging forest fire that threatened everything that he had in this world. A week ago it was a small fire that could have been fought by the logging company in the area. But the government dithered for forty-eight hours… Liability they said.

Now the fire burned out of control, one of the largest in the province. And the fire guys told him to leave. 

Dan couldn’t just walk away.

He wouldn’t. 

He headed back to the water tank that just arrived in the back of his neighbours truck. It was time to fight the blaze across the road. They couldn’t let it jump the highway or all would be lost. He was in his sixties and had spent all his life building up what he had.

This was a fight he refused to lose easily.

The man with the camera came up to Dan again. The water pump was still roaring away as Trevor took a turn with the hose.

“People are saying what kind of fools we are because we didn’t leave. We just saved the house up the road from here. Everything that I have is invested here. I don’t have a big fat paycheque every month, I don’t have a big fat pension coming in. If I don’t stay here and save it.. I’m too old to start over again. That’s why we’re doing this.” Dan thought about that last statement. He was too old for any of this. Why wasn’t the government there helping? Where were the fire services?  Why did the fire service people tell those ready to fight the fire they weren’t allowed to. 

Dan looked back up at the flames glowing across the road. His face was lit up by the embers burning out of control only fifty feet away. He looked back at the camera. “My grandfather told me something. He went through two world wars, lived under occupation. He said to me, boy you have to look after yourself. No one is going to look after you, you need to stand up and take care of what’s yours. Well, this is what it is. I don’t depend on nobody else to look after me…” He turned away and went back to work dismissing the camera with a wave of his hand. 

Dan, Trevor, and other locals refused to heed the evacuation order that was issued by the province. They stayed behind to save their ranches, their homes, and their livestock from the devastation wrought by one of the worst wildfire seasons in British Columbia’s history. The final cost has yet to be tallied. But for these ranchers, it is a cost they will have to face. For those that stayed behind and saved their homes, it was a price worth paying.

For those unfortunate to lose their homes it was a price too high. A price that may not have needed to pay. Why is the concern about liability more important than the concern to save people’s homes?

The summer of 2020 will be remembered for the days that the world stood still and a viral foe wreaked destruction on the physical and mental health of the world. The summer of 2021 will be remembered for the burning foe that wreaked havoc on the lives of those in its path. A summer shrouded in smoke and ashes. fear and disaster. 

It is a difficult situation for those that govern with limited resources and bureaucratic waste. Something has to change. The only ones able to protect their homes and their livelihoods are the people that live there; the ranchers know the land and the loggers have the equipment. Why did the government wait? Was the government so preoccupied with fighting the viral foe it has lost sight of everything else? Why is paperwork more important than action?

There are no easy answers and there are very few winners.  People like Dan fought for their existence and should be an inspiration to us all. Instead, our heroes are movie stars or athletes. It’s the everyday people that pay the price for our prosperity. In the face of all the problems in the world, the one percent seems to be doing just fine. 

Sometimes we have to shelter from the storm; firestorms or biological ones. But we also need to stand up and save what we have. Otherwise, what’s the point? Without risk we are nothing…

The key is knowing when to stand our ground, and when to walk away. Only each one of us knows what the answer is for ourselves.