‘Devastation’: Chief says about 230 homes destroyed by B.C. wildfire

VERNON – The chief of the Okanagan Indian Band says about 230 homes have been destroyed by a raging wildfire near Vernon, B.C.

Dan Wilson said 30 homes of band members and 200 non-band homes have been destroyed by the Bradley Creek fire, that evacuees said was fanned by hurricane-like winds.

Wilson said during a news conference on Tuesday that the reserve “looked like a war zone” when he took a helicopter tour of the destruction.

“It was hard to recognize my community from the air with all the structures and the forest gone.”

The wildfire has been one of the most devastating events in the band’s history, he said. 

Wilson described the event as “surreal,” saying the destruction is just sinking in.

The fire started late Friday and was fanned by winds gusting up to 115 kilometres per hour. 

“The point that I really want to make to everyone is that the fire spread so fast that some of our members only had five minutes to evacuate,” Wilson said.

The Bradley Creek fire on the west side of Okanagan Lake has triggered a series of evacuation orders that Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said had forced about 8,000 people from their homes across B.C. 

She told a separate briefing that there are 37 evacuation orders, although she added that orders and alerts are changing hourly.

Evacuation orders triggered by the Bradley Creek wildfire expanded on Tuesday, as the Regional District of North Okanagan added more than 40 properties as the fire blocked some road escape routes. 

The EmergencyBC system said on social media that residents affected by the expanded order will be escorted out in a convoy.

The BC Wildfire Service said there are about 120 active wildfires across the province, with roughly 50 of them burning out-of-control.

In addition to Bradley Creek at the north end of Okanagan Lake, major fires are burning in the Fraser Canyon, Thompson-Nicola and East Kootenay regions near communities, including Boston Bar, Clinton and Kimberley.

The wildfire service said Tuesday that fire activity is expected to increase this week “as hot and dry conditions return for the majority” of B.C., although winds are forecasted to remain light.

When asked why the government hasn’t yet declared a state of emergency, Greene said it’s unnecessary, as every jurisdiction that is fighting a wildfire already has a local state of emergency, enabling firefighters to take the action they need to protect communities and lives.

The designation would allow the government to restrict travel in the province or ration supplies, such as fuel or accommodations, but Greene said those aren’t needed right now.

When the Bradley Creek fire bore down on Louis Fred and his wife Shorty’s home on the Okanagan Indian Band reserve on Saturday, the couple and friends and family members tried to fight the flames.

Louis Fred tried to carve a break with his tractor by knocking the grass down before the fire spread too far, but he had to give up and get out, and the “doggone flames are right on my butt.” 

“They’re licking his heels basically,” Shorty Fred said. 

“And then he got lost in that dust, the smoke, the fire, and I was worried for him and our son.”

The winds came with such extreme ferocity that embers were singeing hair on their son, who Louis Fred said “had to drag our cousin George outta there: ‘go, gotta go, gotta go!'” 

Shorty Fred said the winds were intense, whipping up dust and smoke, with “grasshoppers coming at me and all kinds of things coming at you with the wind.”

Louis Fred said they were driving slowly down the road as they fled, running over downed power lines and going around poles lying across the road, while others were burned and dangling from the lines. 

Their home off Westside and Skookum Mine Road in Vernon is now lost, and they were fortunate to have a friend offer up a place to stay while they were out of province.

“I’ve been living here all my life, and I’ve really never seen anything like this one here, this weekend here,” Louis Fred said. “Even 2021 was bad. It was huge. But the wind wasn’t nothing like compared to this one.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2026.