He poured 'blood, sweat and tears' into his dream home. Wildfires just destroyed it
'We saw like 100 foot-tall flames where our house was,' says man from B.C.’s Interior
Spi7uwe Sqalemc and his wife were driving home from a wedding last week when they got word that wildfire evacuations had begun in their home community of Squilax, near Little Shuswap Lake in B.C.
They thought they'd have time to get back and grab some belongings, but arrived to find their house — a home they'd spent years building together — already in flames.
"We drove past the front of the river just across from our house — and as we went by, we saw like 100 foot-tall flames where our house was," Sqalemc told The Current's guest host Susan Bonner.
"We just broke out crying," he said.
Dozens of homes and buildings have been confirmed destroyed in the wildfires ravaging B.C.'s Interior, though the worst-hit areas have yet to be surveyed. Some evacuated residents have described watching their homes burn on the live feeds of their neighbour's doorbell cameras.
Sqalemc said he and his wife, Honey Williams August, had taken on the building project when they got married. They used reclaimed materials and saved up money to build it bit by bit, even enlisting family and friends to help. They levelled the ground around it to plant fruit trees and herb gardens.
"It was everything … all our blood, sweat, tears went into that place," he said.
Like thousands of others, they're now displaced, still in disbelief about what they've lost.
"I put everything I have into that home, the house, the land, the feeling," he said. "We're totally in shock, just going through the roller-coaster of emotions."
'Ashes falling everywhere'
The couple were returning from Salt Spring Island on Friday, when they got a call from their daughter, who lives with them but was at work at the time.
"[She] said she was getting scared, it was getting really smoky … and there was ashes falling everywhere," Sqalemc said.
The couple were still three hours away, but Sqalemc tried to reassure his daughter that they'd be home by the time she finished her shift.
Five minutes later, his daughter phoned back to say they'd been sent home from work and told to evacuate.
"It was totally scary," Sqalemc said.
"I didn't know what the scenario looked like … how close the fire was. And then I didn't know how things were at the house, and I didn't know how she was going to handle it."
As they drove past Kamloops and got closer to home, Sqalemc said the sky got darker and gloomier, reminding him of "Armageddon, like you see in the movies."
His daughter made it to safety at a friend's house, but by the time he got back to Squilax, the highway to reach his home had been closed. That's when they drove along the river road, and saw flames where their house should be.
The family might also have lost two of their pets. A friend was able to grab their dog and two of their cats, but another two cats ran off as the fire approached.
Sqalemc said he's heard stories of some people finding their pets unharmed, and Williams August told CBC British Columbia that she's "hoping if anybody sees Artemis or Boots — [they'll] pick 'em up."
"Our home was a labour of love and it demonstrated who we are … we had a ceremonial space — we got married there," she said.
"It's going to be hard to go back and see a black earth instead of a green earth."
Sqalemc said he doesn't know when they'll be able to get back into their community to assess the damage, and for now they're just living "living moment by moment."
"I'm in a hotel right now and like, my brain will trick me into thinking, 'Oh, I'm in a hotel. I must be on holiday,'" he said.
"And then the hard reality hits, 'Oh, actually, the reason I'm in a hotel is because I have nothing.'"
Audio produced by Magan Carty. With files from CBC British Columbia
