- Hey everybody. Mark Horner with a bit of breaking news
on what is still...
actually it's 12 o'clock midnight,
so it's officially August 2nd, Monday now,
as of this very minute.
Christian Sasse joins me from Vancouver, British Columbia.
The topic is wildfires in this breaking news.
Christian, thank you for joining me
from the Vancouver area of British Columbia.
How ya doing tonight?
A little apprehensive, I bet.
- Thank you, Mark.
Thanks for having me here.
Yes, yes, absolutely, yes, yes.
- Yeah. So just so we can set the stage here,
the photograph behind Christian,
he took that picture on Tuesday.
It's from Lake Okanagan, which is east of Vancouver.
You have to go over the mountains as you travel east
and come into this kind of upper Sonoran Desert type area.
Lake Okanagan's a very large lake,
and along that lake is a town, or city rather of Kelowna.
That's where Christian recently purchased a second home,
a summer home, and he and his wife were there
until the skies just got too choked up with smoky air,
and just 10 miles down the road as of this moment,
there are evacuations taking place.
Christian, kind of tell me, if you would please,
and we'll show a map here in just a moment,
about where the evacuation is.
Is it north of Kelowna, south of Kelowna?
And you were in west Kelowna, right?
- Yeah, that's correct. So thank you, Mark.
So, if you look at the Okanagan Lake,
it is located north, south.
So on the southern end in this case,
we call it central Okanagan, you have Kelowna,
and north of that...
is Vernon. It's a very well known area,
and we are there on the west side.
So we are quite in the middle between Vernon and Kelowna,
right, and this is now on evacuation order,
and there is a place that is about 10 miles north
of our holiday resort that is at the moment
under evacuation orders.
So we're under alert, they are under order,
and I don't know anything more about the fire,
how it originated or so,
I just know that this is quite serious.
- Okay. Thank you for that.
So for the benefit of just backing up with a visual
to help people understand the lay of the land, if you will,
I'm gonna bring up this map.
I don't know how well you can see it.
Do you see it right now, Christian?
- Yes, I do.
Yes, you can also bring--
You have screen share, but it's okay. (laughs)
- Yeah. So I'm gonna go to where lake Okanagan is,
so first of all, I'm just gonna zoom back out
so we can see Washington state down here--
- That's great, yes.
- [Mark] And we're gonna go to lake Okanagan just north
of the state of Washington,
central Washington, and Kelowna is right in this area.
- That's correct. That's correct. You got it.
- [Mark] Right here.
So on the left of this bridge is west Kelowna over here.
- That's good. That's correct. That's correct.
- So we go about, did you say 10 miles north?
- No, no, no. You go between Kelowna and Vernon.
It's just going- you see where that little bump is?
That's that's about the area gap.
It's on the-- yeah. If you bring it a little bit,
if you bring it up a little bit more,
go up a little bit more, somewhere around that area there.
Yes. That's around that area there where that's--
- [Mark] Okay.
- [Christian] Somewhere around there, yes,
and that's where the-- where at the moment the alert is,
and if you go further north of that,
that's where the order, the evacuation order is.
It's quite difficult to see, Mark,
I'm just trying to look at and compare it with the map.
Yes. You see, where--
- [Mark] Well, you know what, Christian,
if you don't mind-
- [Christian] There you go.
- [Mark] You gave us this excellent resource a bit earlier,
so this isn't just word of mouth folks.
We're gonna talk about some--
we're gonna source an official channel here for you.
So this is the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations.
Again, this is-- when we talk about the Okanagan,
I know that gets the ears of people
in Washington state as well,
because there's an Okanagan area,
but this is in British Columbia,
Southern British Columbia, just north of Washington state,
and this area right up here, Christian, right?
Is this red area is the area
where the evacuations you say are taking place,
and that's what this red signifies in this map,
we're gonna take a closer look at this map,
but just above it here in this tab,
this link at the tab, latest updates,
Christian gave me the heads up
that there's some significant information here
in terms of sourcing,
and it says White Rock Lake wildfire prompts
evacuation alert, RDCO, West Electoral area,
and this is why it's breaking news.
This was 9:58 PM, so just a couple of hours ago,
and the lead sentence is the White Rock Lake wildfire
has prompted an evacuation alert
for the regional district
of the central Okanagan RDCO West Electoral area.
All properties access from Westside Road located
between Westside, or excuse me,
Westshore Estates and Bear Forest Service Road
north of Traders Cove, so we're getting very granular,
very specific information here,
are on evacuation alert,
a map showing effected properties can be viewed
at this website here,
which I think is where we just were.
We're gonna go back to that.
- Correct, Mark, yes.
- [Mark] So anything--
I could read the whole thing, Christian,
but it might be a little bit too specific
for the general audience,
but this ties into that red area
that you were alluding to just a moment ago, right?
- That's completely correct.
And we actually have friends there who are--
who've just evacuated a few minutes ago.
So it's-- unfortunately it's serious.
It's sad because this is a result that we've had about
from the incredible drought and extreme temperatures
that we've seen about for-- yeah...
it's now, ah gosh, it's about four weeks ago,
four to five weeks ago,
where we've had these extreme temperatures
in June actually. Yeah, no it's--
yeah, that's right. It was in June,
and we had this where temperatures
above 110 Fahrenheit or 44 to 46 degrees Celsius
that were quite high, and it's never really recovered.
It did rain a little bit today,
as we saw, but far too little,
and since then in the Okanagan,
we've had more fires in a place--
in a place called Osoyoos, there was some...
fires and north of that,
there was some fires, but they got them under control.
That was the one that was on the east side.
It was closer to Washington state actually,
to the border,
and now for the first time we're seeing them
on the west side.
So yeah, I'm sorry, it is concerning.
It is really concerning.
- So that folks can kind of help frame this,
and we can frame it for them in their mind,
because you bought your home there,
your second home or your summer home,
it was just probably what two or three months ago.
- Yes, correct.
- [Mark] You've seen the impact
since that day one on the local landscapes,
I'm sure, in terms of just how dry it's been getting there.
- Yes. Yeah, that's completely correct.
I'm not using, I mean, we live here in Canada, right?
And 50 degrees north, that is very far north,
and it's true, it doesn't rain much in that area,
but usually it's, you know,
we've had wildfires in summer,
although not this dangerous,
there were some in Penticton a few years ago,
I think it was 2017 where they had some fires,
but I think what we're seeing
at the moment is unfortunately a lot more severe,
and unfortunately we also know that
about 50% of them are caused by--
by irresponsible or also sometimes accidental interference
from people, right?
It's- so the other 50%, probably from lightning, right?
That's what we know.
And actually all the forest roads are closed now.
The parks are closed because they are afraid
of some sparks that come off from combustion,
you know, from the exhaust and so on
for very good reasons, right?
But still, you know, we have fires developing, so yeah.
It's August. It's gonna be a long August. (laughs)
- To help give some even added context,
and this really stayed with me
after you shared it with me earlier,
you know, for folks who don't know,
Christian is an excellent wildlife photographer,
and at the site that you see behind him nearby,
there's an osprey nest, and he was really excited
to live stream with his 800 millimeter lens,
developments at that nest, but sadly,
it just got too hot, and Christian,
you firmly believe it was the heat that resulted
in the deaths of the- I don't know if it was more
than one young osprey.
- Yeah. It's very sad.
You know, the ospreys have a higher body temperature
than our body temperature, Mark,
so they can withstand a lot more,
but I think their body temperature is,
if I remember correctly, it's about 110 Fahrenheit,
so it's about at least 10 degrees higher
than the human body temperature,
so that helps them cope with heat a lot better.
The problem is once that exceeds,
the only way to cool yourself off is with water, right?
It's quite simple, so that's why the lake also becomes
for the adults, you know, the savior.
They just go and dive. I've seen it many times.
They just dive straight into the lake, but the little ones
whose wing structure's not developed have no escape,
and they usually in that case either get a heat stroke
or they just jump out of the nest.
That's why the wildlife rescue centers have received
an unprecedented number of juveniles,
of all kinds of different raptors, right?
It's quite sad, and when I was there with eagle biologist,
David Hancock, a few weeks ago, and we went after the--
you know, this incredible heat wave,
we went to about 14 ospreys, and 13 of them were unoccupied.
So only in one, we saw a juvenile osprey,
and to this day, I wonder how it even survived.
It's actually a miracle because, you know,
I don't understand it from a science point of view,
how it could actually survive, because,
you know, the temperature was so high,
but for some miraculous reason, it fortunately did survive.
Yeah.
- So you went to 14 osprey nests around that lake area,
and 13 of them were empty?
- Yes, and, empty doesn't, you know, you could argue,
well, maybe they were empty before.
I cannot confirm that, you know,
that these were all occupied, but I can confirm
that I look a lot at osprey nests,
and that they were occupied.
A lot of them were occupied, you know,
before the heat wave. That I know for sure.
- So the bottom line tonight,
you've lest-- you've left your nest, if you will,
over in Kelowna, near the shores of Lake Okanagan,
or Okanagan Lake.
- Yes.
- And so we're glad that you're safe,
but just how apprehensive are you?
How difficult will it be to sleep?
Are you gonna be online following the latest updates?
- Yeah, yeah, of course.
I mean, I was lucky of course,
because we have a place to go, and I mean,
goodness me, we'd offer a place for anybody who needs help,
you know, to come and stay with us.
I mean, this is absolutely-- no questions asked,
because it's really serious.
We already told us to our friends and so on.
It's very serious.
I left on Tuesday because--
well, you could say it was just a bad feeling,
you know, just a bad feeling, because you know,
the view you see behind, you can see the red sun,
which by the way, has moved--
the same view that you probably also have
where you are near Seattle now, Mark,
and we have in Vancouver, right?
So the smoke is moving over here too,
but the lake that you see there in the background,
when I left, you couldn't even see the lake anymore,
and in subsequent days, what I could see from webcams
and so on, it hasn't improved
because there's such a lack of wind,
and then you ask yourself, is wind any good,
because, you know, wind-- if there are wildfires,
you don't want wind either,
so the only thing you can pray for is rain.
So yes, we are very apprehensive and--
Fingers crossed. (laughs) Okay.
- Yeah. All right, Christian, well,
I'm very, very generous with your time this evening.
I really appreciate it.
So just the bottom line, Christian is in the Vancouver area.
He returned to his home in that area on Tuesday
of this past week.
Prior to that, he was over in Kelowna,
west Kelowna, that area, where he has a summer home.
- That is completely correct, yes.
- [Mark] Right, and he left.
The air was just getting too smoke-filled,
and he and his wife returned to their primary home
in the Vancouver area,
but just 10 miles up the road from that home
that Christian left earlier this-- or last week now,
in Kelowna, just 10 miles north of there,
along Lake Okanagan,
there is an area that's being evacuated,
and Christian, have you heard the language specifically
that people of Kelowna or west Kelowna need to be advised,
or on alert, be prepared to evacuate?
Have you heard that in any official language?
- We just know that all these areas have, of course,
very good communications on social media now,
so I haven't heard it officially.
I don't know that, but I do know from our friends,
if they get an evacuation order,
they would have been called, right?
That's-- alert is not being-- alert is a word of mouth,
but when it comes to an order,
you do get called right? So it's--
I don't even know at the moment how much time they have.
I can tell you only one thing,
and that's good advice,
I did a test with myself last Tuesday, right,
when I left, and I thought, well,
I've got my photographic equipment and so on,
because that's what I do, wildlife and astronomy,
so I'm going to pack the car,
and I thought, well, it's gonna take me five minutes
because I packed everything very properly, it should--
You know, how long it took me?
One hour. And that's not good.
So my message is very clear.
I completely underestimated the time it would take me
because there were so many small things
that came up all the time,
just all the time that I thought Oh my goodness,
I forgot this, and yeah, well,
maybe I should take this too, and so on.
So you can never be well enough prepared.
I did have a full fuel tank, which is extremely important.
It's extremely important. But in the--
If I had been under emergency evacuation,
I would have completely failed, okay?
And that I would like to say as a warning,
do not do that, my friends,
really, that's what I can say.
- Right. I can understand how that--
you have a lot of photography gear,
and a lot invested in photography gear-
tripods, lenses, and other devices,
devices that let you follow the moon and the sun,
and see the sun.
- [Christian] Right.
- So I can see how you'd say why, you know,
these things are hard to get. They're expensive.
Blah blah blah, but nothing is more precious than life.
So that's really good advice to be prepared
and have your priorities set,
and just to bottom line it again,
we're talking about an area of concern
about 10 miles north of west Kelowna then
that's referred to now as the White Rock Lake wildfire,
and it has prompted an evacuation alert
for the regional district
of the central Okanagan West Electoral area.
That's in southern British Columbia.
So that is specifically what we're referring to here.
So let me just come over to my other monitor,
and we'll end the screen share here,
and we'll do a proper farewell,
but before we say goodbye, Christian,
I do want to say to you,
if you don't mind sticking around just a few extra minutes.
- Oh, of course I will. That's--
- So, yeah.
- Completely fine.
- Yeah. Thank you,
and we certainly hope that your area,
and all of that area is spared,
and that firefighters can get the upper hand,
and that people will soon be returning to their homes
if they're having to leave them
this night slash now this morning.
Thank you very much.
- Thank you, Mark.
- You're most welcome.
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