Summerland residents return to neighbourhoods forever changed by the Bald Range wildfire

For many Summerland residents returning home after the Bald Range wildfire , the relief of getting back to their community is being met with a difficult new reality.

Rick and Nan Cogbill were among those returning home, but as they drove into their neighbourhood, they were confronted by a landscape they barely recognized.

“When we turned the corner into the neighbourhood, the entire view is completely different. There is supposed to be a house there, and now there is just complete wreckage and burned trees,” Nan said.

The Cogbills’ home survived the fire. Four homes immediately surrounding theirs did not.

Rick and Nan have lived in the neighbourhood long enough to consider themselves its self-proclaimed grandparents.

“We are kind of the grandma and grandpa of the neighbourhood,” Rick said.

That made seeing the destruction around their home especially difficult.

“But then we looked to the right and we can see houses we’ve never seen before because there’s normally a house blocking that view,” Rick said. “Then we look across the street and it looks like a completely different subdivision than the one we left.”

Now, as residents return, the focus is beginning to shift from evacuation to recovery.

The province has committed to an after-action review of the wildfire response, looking at how to better prevent wildfires from reaching communities and how to manage large-scale evacuations in the future. The province is seeking feedback from both the public and organizations.

For the Cogbills, the return comes with relief, but also grief for the neighbours who are now facing a much longer road home.

“Our neighbours have a long way to go and we really feel for them,” Rick said.