COMMUNITY
KELOWNA native Drew Urquhart has received a basketball scholarship to attend the University of Vermont this fall.
OKANAGAN LAKE was not very cooperative for participants in the Across The Lake Swim on Saturday.
BROOKE Mapstone was crowned Miss Kelowna Lady of the Lake at the annual pageant finale last weekend.
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Dust settles over the Smith Creek wildfire Kathy Michaels STAFF REPORTER
Patty Hebert’s shoulders sagged in an apparent show of relief Monday, as she got word the evacuation order on her West Kelowna neighbourhood had been rescinded. She and her husband Ray had been living out of their motorhome as crews battled back the Smith Creek fire, which at times over the past few days seemed precariously close to their home of four years at Mountain Hollow Lane. “It’s been really hard on them,” said the Heberts’s daughter, Marely Hall. “We’ve been hoping and praying they’d get to go home today. It’s been stressful.” The strain caused by wildfires encroaching on area neighbourhoods is all too familiar for Hall, who had just started to get back into the swing of everyday life. Her parents were among the last to be granted permission to return home, but Hall was among the 2,000 area residents who were given the go-ahead a day earlier. “You just feel so … displaced,” she said, of the experience, as helicopters whirled above her Cobblestone Road home. The hulking machines were on a regular loop between Shannon Lake, where they were scooping up water, to the centre of the fire in the hills above the residential area.
BARRY GERDING/CAPITAL NEWS
SMITH CREEK wildfire firefighters Jakob Sparks (right) and Josh Fuder talked to the media on Saturday about what it’s like to fight a forest fire on the ground. See story on A3. By Monday afternoon, the BC Wildfire Management Branch was saying the 260 hectare fire was 60 per cent contained, but fires within the perimeter would continue to burn and be visible for several weeks, thus the
continued presence of fire crews. Despite all that, Hall said she felt at peace. “There really is no place like home. I slept like a baby last night, but for the few days before there was no rest,” she 1
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said. “I was just up at all hours, following the news every moment.” It wasn’t a stress-free event for her two young children, either. Her nineyear-old daughter cut short a summer vacation
in the Lower Mainland to be closer to her family as the fire raged on. That said, Hall was quick to note that friends, family and the security of a close-knit community lightened the pressures stemming from the evacu-
ation that ran from Thursday to Sunday. As part of the Tallus Ridge neighbourhood she was kept abreast of all that was happening from an internal newsletter of sorts that’s on Facebook, and some community mem-
bers actually took it upon themselves to go door-todoor to make sure everyone was OK. “So many people have been so gracious,” she
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