What will we wake up to?

1. Burdeniuk wondered what the morning would bring. Would there be a Salmon Arm?

I was one of many people working in the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) during the time when the Silver Creek fire was expanding and moving closer to threatening our community.

I will always remember that night as we all sat there watching the mountainside where treetops burst into flames like candles, wondering what [we would] be waking up to the next day.

The fire brought our community together and for one night this rag tag group of individuals from different agencies, gathered under one roof hoping we would survive the predicted winds that could possibly take our homes from us.  We have a special bond that connected us with evacuation memories.

Dwayne Burdeniuk
Director of Administrative and Human Resources
District of Salmon Arm

2. A view from Salmon Arm. The fire burned at an energy rate of 220,000 kilowatts per metre.