On August 16, 2003, a wildfire was started near Rattlesnake Island in Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. The wildfire was fuelled by a constant wind and one of the driest summers in the past decade. Within a few days it had grown into a true firestorm.
The fire grew northward and eastward, initially threatening a small amount of lakeshore homes, but quickly became an interface zone fire and forced the evacuation of 27,000 residents and consumed lightning struck homes. The final size of the firestorm was over 250 square kilometers (61,776 acres). Most of the trees in Okanagan Mountain Park were burned, and the park was closed.
60 fire departments, 1,400 armed forces troops and 1,000 forest fire fighters took part in controlling the fire, but were largely helpless in stopping the disaster.
There were also at least 10 Conair owned Canadair CL-215s and at least one Martin Mars water bomber working the fire. Aside from a crash by a water bomber, there was no loss of human life during the entire incident.
Amateur radio operators helped pass emergency traffic during this emergency.
Famous quotes containing the words mountain, park and/or fire:
“The mountain throws a shadow,
Thin is the moon’s horn;
What did we remember
Under the ragged thorn?
Dread has followed longing,
And our hearts are torn.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The park is filled with night and fog,
The veils are drawn about the world,”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)
“The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)