Two sisters who live outside of B.C. woke up on Saturday morning to the news that their parents had been forced to flee their care home in Summerland due to an aggressive wildfire.
“I woke up to my sister texting me; she lives in Nova Scotia and I’m in Florida, with a link to the wildfires saying that the whole town of Summerland has been evacuated,” Helen Gonzalez told Global News.
“So we called their cellphone, which they don’t really use very often. Of course, there’s no answer.”
Their parents were evacuated overnight on Friday from the Seniors Village in Summerland.
Gonzalez said they didn’t know what to do until she remembered that their dog, Christy, had an Apple AirTag on her collar.
She then saw a location ping at the Penticton Convention Centre.
“I figured they were probably safe,” Gonzalez said.
Get daily National news
“But then I started worrying about, does he have his medication? Does he have his hearing aids?”
Her father has lung cancer and her mother suffers from memory loss.
At this point, Gonzalez still hadn’t heard from her parents, so she decided to make a plea on a community Facebook page.
“Then everybody started calling me, saying, ‘I saw your parents this morning; they’re fine, they’re lovely, they were greeting everybody,'” Gonzalez added.
One woman who lives next to the convention centre found Gonzalez’s parents and called her.
“Got him a comfortable bed, got him food, got the dog food as well,” Gonzalez said.
“And just let me talk to him on her phone. I was crying. She was crying.
- Off-road vehicles banned on Crown land in many parts of B.C. as wildfires burn
- Summerland farmers can return to wildfire evacuation zone to care for their animals
- Latest on the Bald Range wildfire shows some fire growth expected on Monday
- 80-year-old woman dies while fleeing aggressive Bald Range fire near Summerland
Two hundred and thirty-eight seniors from two long-term care facilities in Summerland were relocated due to the Bald Range wildfire.
“The change between alert to order was very rapid, which meant that we obviously had to prioritize the evacuation of the individual residents,” Richard Harding, chief operating officer of Clinical Operations IH North at Interior Health Authority, said.
“We are continuing to connect with families.”
A helpline has been set up for families looking to contact their loved ones in long-term care.
For Gonzalez, she couldn’t be more grateful to the community for rallying together.
“I just think it’s like a wonderful thing, and I know everybody wants to help,” she said.