A wildfire west of Summerland moved so fast that families went from no warning to an evacuation order at their door within minutes, some suffering burns as flames closed in on their homes. Andrew Johnson reports from Penticton, where thousands of evacuees are now camped out during what should have been the city’s biggest festival weekend of the summer.
He details the scale of the loss along the rural Faulder area, where homes, ranches and livestock were destroyed, and explains how difficult it has become to separate real fire footage from misinformation spreading online. He also shares what evacuees chose to save in the chaos, from a child’s handmade card to a lifetime of paintings on a living room wall.
Even inside the devastation, Andrew Johnson finds moments of resilience, including an evacuee in hospice care who calls the ordeal just another part of his story.
Topics: BC wildfire evacuation, Faulder homes lost, wildfire misinformation, wildfire resilience stories, Penticton evacuees
GUEST: Andrew Johnson | ctvnews.ca
Originally aired on2026-08-10
