Kelowna-area evacuees providing encouragement to firefighters through doorbell cams, chief says

Central Saanich firefighters save Kelowna home A Kelowna family came to Central Saanich fire hall Monday to thank the firefighters who protected their home.

Hundreds of firefighters from dozens of departments around B.C. have been battling wildfires in the Okanagan over the last few days, and it turns out much of their work has been caught on camera.

During a news conference Tuesday, West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund described the proliferation of doorbell cameras as an "interesting factor" in the recent wildfire fight, one that has allowed evacuated residents to check in on firefighters' efforts to save their homes.

"Often you've talked back to us through your doorbell cams and told us that we're doing a good job," Brolund said. "That's new for us, but we appreciate that."

Malindi Elmore took her appreciation a step further on Monday, visiting the Central Saanich Fire Department on Vancouver Island to thank crews there for the work their colleagues had done in Kelowna.

"They saved our house, they saved our neighbourhood," Elmore said, after her two young sons had given firefighters homemade cards.

"They’ve been instrumental in protecting our house and our city."

The family is staying with relatives on Vancouver Island while their home is on evacuation order, but Elmore said she and her neighbours have kept up with the fire fight by watching it play out on their home security cameras.

“Watching the video – we all have webcams on the back of our homes, on the front of our homes – they're putting themselves between a raging fire and themselves and spraying it down,” Elmore said. “And we have homes to go back to because of what they were doing.”

Brolund said crews have found their firefighting actions being watched on many occasions since the McDougall Creek fire swept into West Kelowna last Thursday.

"Our firefighters are in your neighbourhoods," the fire chief said.

"You know this because many of you have doorbell cams. Many of you have witnessed the hard work and heroics, often, of the firefighters, in some cases saving your homes with the garden hoses that you've left out for us. In some cases you've seen them come and put sprinklers on your homes, move your patio furniture … move your wood pile, take care of your propane tanks."

Some of the evacuation orders in the Okanagan have been downgraded to alerts, and Brolund said Tuesday that he believes crews are "turning the corner" on the fire fight.

Still, there's more work to be done, and the fire chief asked for patience from people still on evacuation order.

Tuesday's news conference also revealed that crews believe fewer than 90 homes and other structures in West Kelowna and Westbank First Nation have been destroyed by the blaze, with up to another 100 estimated to have been lost outside the city limits.

With files from CTV News Vancouver Island's Robert Buffam