Evacuees slowly learn of losses from B.C. wildfire that forced thousands to flee

Kyla Gaudiuso says she found out her home in Faulder, B.C., had been destroyed when she received a photo of the ridge where it once stood, completely engulfed in flames.

The community west of Summerland was one of the first areas overrun by the Bald Range wildfire that has claimed one life and forced more than 20,000 residents around Okanagan Lake to flee.

RCMP say an 80-year-old woman died because of the fire as she tried to escape her home in Meadow Valley, west of Summerland, over the weekend.

The British Columbia government on Saturday declared a provincial state of emergency and says property losses are significant, though details are scant.

Gaudiuso says she hasn’t received official confirmation, but the photo has left her certain her home is gone.

It’s among dozens of properties in Faulder thought to have been consumed by the flames, with video footage showing the village of around 215 residents has been reduced to smouldering ruins.

Gaudiuso described the chaotic scene that unfolded as residents learned of the encroaching fire and the community began to evacuate, calling it “pandemonium.”

She said she was able to get to safety and is now staying at a friend’s house in Penticton, but hopes the blaze is contained soon so she can see the destruction for herself.

“I would love to just see like a picture or know for sure like what’s left on our property because I’m kind of one of those people, it doesn’t really seem real,” Gaudiuso said in an interview. “I have to see it to believe it.”

The BC Wildfire Service says the fire is about 136 square kilometres as it burns out of control on the outskirts of Summerland, a community of 12,000 people that has been ordered evacuated.

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.