As the ashes start to settle on the McDougall Creek wildfire, stories about the sacrifices being made by firefighters are surfacing.
North Westside fire chief Ross Kotscherofski said Monday there are “several” firefighters with the Wilsons Landing department that have lost their homes. But they are still working the fire lines every day.
“They come from their hotel in Kelowna with nothing but a suitcase because that's all they have left at this time. And they still show up every single day,” Kotscherofski said.
“And they've made a promise to me that they're going to continue to do so. It's probably one of the most inspirational things that I've seen in my firefighting career.”
With around 500 firefighters from across B.C. in West Kelowna right now, local fire chief Jason Brolund says there has been a “fire truck parade” at the fire hall each day during shift change.
“It is an incredible sight. I was there this morning,” he said. “I saw the firefighters from the night shift coming back and they were black and they were black because they were out there doing that grind, that hard work of firefighting all through the night.”
Brolund said he learned today about a out-of-town municipal firefighter who was scheduled to become a Canadian citizen today, but was now unable to make the ceremony.
“What an important thing, and what a massive sacrifice to make — but he's gonna do it,” Brolund continued. “He's going to do it by Zoom from behind the front lines.”
“People are asking me where he's from. And I don't know. What I do know is he’s going to be from Canada.”
Brolund also noted many paid-on-call firefighters that are a part of his department are now pulling full shifts on the fire lines in addition to holding down their day jobs or own businesses.
