A B.C. family is desperate for help after the resort they’ve operated for decades—and more recently without any fire insurance—was scorched by one of the blazes burning in the Fraser Canyon. Bryan Fogelman, the owner and founder of REO Rafting & Yoga Resort, says he was taking a group out on a rafting trip last Thursday when he noticed a plume of smoke in the distance. When the group got to its put-in spot at the Nahatlatch River, some two kilometres away from basecamp, he says there were visible flames across the water. The group was rushed to safety, as were the resort’s 37 employees. By Friday morning, Fogelman says about 80 per cent of his family’s business had been destroyed. “When I first saw it, it didn’t look like our property,” he said, describing a scene of black trees covered silver ash. “ It looked like the moon, if the moon had black sticks growing out of it.” ‘IT DIDN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN’ A video montage posted on social media Tuesday shows a stark contrast between the picturesque site before it was burnt and the scorched remains. Fogelman believes the devastation could have been avoided had the Kookipi Creek wildfire been fought to completion. Firefighters battled the blaze hard for weeks after it was discovered on July 7, but Fogelman says it was still left to smoulder for weeks. By Friday, firefighting resources were focused on the Okanagan, where multiple out-of-control fires burning in the area resulted in the cities of Kelowna and West Kelowna each declaring a state of emergency. The B.C. government issued a province-wide state of emergency the same day. “If you look at all the destruction that occurred here, it didn’t have to happen. The (Kookipi) fire was never 100 per cent taken out, resources were diverted elsewhere, it wasn’t monitored,” Fogelman said, adding that support from the BC Wildfire Service didn’t arrive until early this week. BCWS fire information officer Jessica Mack explained to CTV News that resources were diverted from the fire on July 29, when its status was changed from out of control to being held. The blaze’s status was changed back to out of control on Aug. 17, after strong, southwesterly winds arrived, blowing embers over the containment lines on the north and east flanks, Mack said. An incident management team working out of a fire camp in Boston Bar had assumed command of the Kookipi Creek wildfire response. According to the latest update from the B.C. Wildfire Service’s website, that blaze has grown to an estimated 16,205 hectares in size. COMMITTED TO REBUILDING The resort has been Fogelman’s home since 1982—he started the business one decade before meeting his wife there. “A lot of people have met their spouses here,” he added. The resort has also been the site of 28 song writing retreats, dozens of yoga and wellness retreats and countless fond memories. Daughter Sierra Fogelman has set up an online fundraiser to support her family’s efforts to rebuild the resort. Hundreds of people donated within the first 48 hours of the crowdfunding campaign, which has earned more than $44,000 of its $250,000 goal. That’s how much the resort needs in order to refund people whose bookings have been cancelled. Fogelman estimates it will take $2 million to fully rebuild, however, which he’s committed to doing. “If I give up now, what is my life worth?” Bryan Fogelman said, adding he’s never cried so much in his life. He recalled an especially emotional moment when he returned to the scorched property to water the grounds—something he regularly did before the fire as a preventative measure. “There was a little bird following me. It empowered me because I thought, you know, nature needs to recover too. I just watered that spot for half and hour and the bird stayed with me, it was kind of special,” the 67-year-old said, choking up.
