Temporary Foreign Workers Airlifted to Safety as Fast-Moving Wildfire Threatens Summerland

Olivia Singh

8/11/20262 min read

A group of temporary foreign workers from Mexico were among dozens of people rescued by helicopter after a fast-moving wildfire threatened orchards and communities near Summerland, B.C., last week.

Alex Ledesma, a cherry picker from Mexico, said his crew was working at an orchard in Meadow Valley, northwest of Summerland, when they were told they needed to evacuate.

“The situation started to become critical fast. In about 40 minutes since we had notice, we had to move out of there,” Ledesma said while speaking outside an evacuation centre in West Kelowna.

The Bald Range wildfire, which was discovered Friday, grew rapidly and prompted the evacuation of more than 20,000 people from Summerland and Peachland in the Okanagan.

Only Road Out Blocked by Trees

Ledesma said his crew remained calm after discovering that the only road out of the area had been blocked by fallen trees and was impassable.

Helicopter rescue crews arrived within minutes, he said.

Ledesma boarded a helicopter with eight other people, including members of his work crew and longtime residents of the area.

They were flown to safety and dropped off at an empty baseball field near West Kelowna.

“There was fear, adrenaline and my heart going boom, boom, boom. It was a lot of emotions at the same time,” he said.

Ledesma and 46 other temporary foreign workers from Mexico are now being housed at several locations, including local farms, after being displaced from the orchards where they had been working.

Worker Says Fire Moved Faster Than He Had Ever Seen

Julio Senties, another temporary foreign worker from Mexico, said he has become accustomed to smoky summers during his years working in British Columbia, but had never experienced a fire moving so quickly.

He said ash was already falling across the area Friday evening as workers prepared to leave.

“We were told to pack an emergency bag with our documents and passports, and we started evacuating around 20 minutes later,” Senties said.

He later learned that the accommodations where he had stayed during several summers of working in B.C. were destroyed by the wildfire.

The condition of the orchards where he worked remained unknown.

Senties is now staying at a hockey rink in West Kelowna.

He said his employer has offered to send some workers back to Mexico approximately one week earlier than planned because of the dangerous wildfire conditions.

At Least 55 People Rescued by Air

Erick Thompson with the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen’s emergency operations centre said at least 55 people were rescued using air support.

He described the Bald Range wildfire as one of the “quickest-moving, fastest-growing” fires the area had experienced.

Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes told Peazzi that homes had been lost, although conditions remained too dangerous for officials to fully assess the damage.

He said losses appeared to be significant, particularly in farming valleys surrounding the community.

Summerland’s chief administrative officer confirmed Sunday that the municipality’s downtown area had survived the wildfire.

Penticton RCMP have confirmed at least one death connected to the evacuation. An 80-year-old woman died while attempting to flee the fire with her family.

Bald Range Fire Grows to 156 Square Kilometres

The B.C. Wildfire Service said Monday that the Bald Range wildfire had grown slightly to approximately 156 square kilometres.

Officials said winds overnight were not as strong as had been forecast.

Improved visibility Monday was expected to help aircraft support firefighting efforts, although the wildfire service warned that clearer skies could also contribute to more aggressive fire behaviour.

Across British Columbia, nearly 22,000 people remained under evacuation orders, while more than 10,000 others had been placed under evacuation alerts and told to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

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