The home of the son of Gibsons artist Kerri Luciani has been destroyed in a wildfire still raging near Kamloops, but he, his wife, and their three young children got out in time and are safe and staying with friends in Alberta.
“It looks like a war zone on their property,” said Luciani of the devastation from the massive blaze, known as the White Rock Lake wildfire. It tore through the community of Monte Lake, midway between Kamloops and Vernon, on Aug. 5.
“My son said the fire moved 18 kilometres in 20 minutes,” Luciani told Coast Reporter.
The White Rock Lake fire, among hundreds of active fires across the province, was still officially declared “out of control” at press time. The fire was first detected on July 13 and had destroyed more than 560 square kilometres by Aug. 11.
Luciani said her son, Dustan Eager, 51, and his neighbours just south of the community of Monte Lake, were put on an evacuation alert a few weeks ago. As they’d been through a similar episode in the past, the Eager family took no chances, and Dustan immediately took his wife, Tammy, and their three children aged nine to 18 months old, to Alberta in the family trailer. He then returned to clear his one-acre parcel of land of any fire-spreading debris in case flames got close to Monte Lake, Luciani said.
Eager’s efforts might have helped. Although their home is gone, some small structures on the property appear intact.
“There is metal everywhere, because they had a metal roof and they had metal siding [on the burned house],” Luciani said. “But they had gotten one of those [large shipping] containers. And they put a bunch of stuff, appliances, that sort of thing in there. It’s kind of charred on the side of it. It doesn’t look black, so they’re hoping that it didn’t get really hot.”
Also still standing are the family’s chicken coop and a large wooden playhouse. “They're going to be so happy,” Luciani said. “Tristan, the nine-year-old, he helped build that playhouse for his homeschooling project. And it survived.”
The Eagers had a close call three years ago when a wildfire came close, Luciani said. That’s why they took precautions to evacuate quickly. It also prompted them to purchase the metal shipping container, and to get insurance that will cover at least some of the family’s losses. It won’t pay for everything, however. A GoFundMe account has been set up by a family friend, Luciani said.
“People can just go to my Facebook page for the link,” she said, “or they can [Facebook message] me and I can send them a private email.”
Luciani, a Gibsons resident since 1993, is a part-time employee at Gibsons Public Market, but spends most workdays at her studio workbench as jewelry-maker and metal artist. This has all happened to her family at a time when she was preparing to set up her booth the weekend of Aug. 14-15 at the Hackett Park Craft Fair in Sechelt, the biggest annual gathering of artisans on the Coast. She’s still going to be there.
“But you know,” said Luciani, “for part of me, it’s the last thing I feel like doing.”
