Hare Krishna village ordered to evacuate due to B.C. wildfire
60 people, school, temple and cow sanctuary all affected
A Hare Krishna community in an off-the-grid patch of rural B.C. is among those that have been ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire.
The Saranagati Village is located a 320-kilometre drive northeast of Vancouver in the Venables Valley where an evacuation order is in place due to the Shetland Creek wildfire.
According to a website for the community, about 30 families live there as off-grid homesteaders. The village is also home to a school, a temple and a cow sanctuary, in the faith's tradition of holding them as sacred animals.
"We live normal lives, trying to farm, raise our children in an intentional community," said Damodar Paquette, a community leader, in an interview with CBC Daybreak Kamloops Thursday morning.
The evacuation order comes as more than 230 wildfires are burning across B.C., nearly half of which have started in the last 24 hours.
The B.C. Wildfire Service has warned of a "very challenging" time in the next three days, with heat, wind and lightning in the forecast for the province.
Saranagati Village is one of several communities throughout the Interior to be impacted by the growing fires.
According to the village website, the community was founded in the 1980s by a group of followers who purchased the land, fully paying it off in the 1990s.
"Here they have built their own homes; piped in gravity-fed water from the mountain creeks; created their own electricity from generators, solar panels or hydro systems," the website reads.
In recent years, they have also been adapting the community to be FireSmart, a program aimed at creating fire-resistant properties to mitigate the risk of losing homes during evacuations.
In fact, Paquette says, most of the village was at a FireSmart meeting when members noticed flames in the distance, and the evacuation order came through.
"The fire was raging down the mountain. We were all scrambling to get our essentials and leave," he said. "I'm saying this with tears in my eyes."
In all, about 60 people live in the village, said Paquette, and all have been taking the risks of wildfire seriously, following practices for clearing debris from the land and placing sprinklers on their roofs to try to protect their homes.
"I mean, forest fires are a reality and where we live, so we had a plan, and we executed it," he said. "We're hopeful."
'Like lava,' evacuee says of fire
Saranagati Village resident Nandini Villeneuve told The Canadian Press that when she left for nearby Cache Creek at around 7 p.m. PT Wednesday, the Shetland Creek wildfire was descending the mountain "like lava coming down," shocking evacuees with its speed.
Colton Davies, an information officer with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, said the "orderly" evacuations started at 6 p.m.
"By the time our formal notice was issued at 9 p.m., the evacuation order had already been completed," he said in an emailed statement.
Cliff Chapman, the director of provincial operations for the B.C. Wildfire Service, told a news briefing that the Shetland Creek fire had displayed "aggressive" behaviour Wednesday night, challenging their suppression efforts.
Villeneuve said the fire was "intense."
"I have a mountain right in front of me, and it was raging all across, all across the mountain range," she said.
"When we left last night, we didn't know if we would have a home this morning."
Chapman said the wildfire service deployed its night-vision-equipped aircraft to a fire for the first time this year, flying over from Penticton to help ground crews fighting the Shetland Creek fire.
The fire was discovered last Friday and then merged with the smaller Teit Creek fire. Lightning is the suspected cause.
An incident management team was getting set up in the area Thursday, Chapman said.
He told the news briefing that he hadn't heard of any structure damage due to the Shetland Creek fire, although it was "threatening" structures.
"For all of British Columbians, my message is (to) be diligent. We are going to see lightning. We saw 1,300 lightning strikes (Wednesday), many of which started fires in the southeast fire centre, and we'll pick up more (on Thursday)," he said.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness issued a news release saying the community was "requesting the prayers of devotees around the world."
"It's just part of life living in the Interior of B.C., especially when you're surrounded by forest … you kind of just get used to it," said Villeneuve.
"But when it's, like, right on your doorstep, it's pretty scary. So, definitely a roller-coaster of emotions," she added. "I didn't get much sleep last night."
With files from Jenifer Norwell and The Canadian Press