'I just wanted my dog': Cache Creek, B.C., evacuee flees home amid raging wildfires
Sherrie Fraser didn't have a moment to spare before fire engulfed Boston Flats Community Estates — the mobile home development where she lived for over five years in Cache Creek, in B.C.'s Interior.
"I just wanted my dog. That was my concern was getting her out because I knew that the fire was still far enough away I had time to get in there and get out again," she tells The Current's summer host Mike Finnerty.
Following the July 7 evacuation order, Fraser rushed home from work to save her dog but had to persuade the RCMP to let her in.
"It was just so frightening because I went around one roadblock to get to another roadblock and the RCMP stopped me and I said, 'I wanted to get into Boston Flats because my dog was in there' and they said, 'You can't go down.'"
Eventually Fraser did get back into the home to get her dog and a few valuables.
"I was able to grab my cameras that were right by the door and a photograph of my boys off the wall. That was it. And then I left."
B.C. remains under a state of emergency, with the federal government saying it's preparing to send in help, after the worst wildfires the province has seen in 14 years.
More than 200 fires are burning across the province's interior, and an estimated 10,000 people have had to flee their homes.
For those who've already had to pack up and leave — often with just a phone call's notice or a sudden knock at the door — it's an emotional and uncertain time.
A home but no community
Fraser tells Finnerty that her trailer remains standing in Boston Flats but the other 30 homes were destroyed by the wildfire.
"[It's] so devastating because it's the only one. And all those other places are gone. All those other people have nothing. I may be able to get something. They have nothing, absolutely nothing," Fraser says of her lost community.
"That just makes me sick. The only thing I have is myself and my dog."
Related: 1 home survives wildfire destruction in tiny B.C. community
She describes her close-knit community of neighbours as safe and peaceful with mostly people who are 55-plus enjoying retirement.
It's expected the community will rebuild but "it could take years for that to happen."
Fraser says she's still in denial having to accept her new reality.
"You know watching the Fort McMurray fire last year and thinking I couldn't imagine, and you don't until it happens to you," she tells Finnerty.
"I still look at it and go, 'This isn't happening.'"
Listen to the full segment at the top of this web post that includes CBC Kamloops's Doug Herbert and fire ecologist Robert Gray.
This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturino and Eunice Kim.