The morning after the Bradley Creek wildfire roared down the hill toward Westside Road in Vernon, destroying hundreds of homes in its path, Hank Prebushewski got out on Okanagan Lake to get a first-hand look at the destruction left behind. “It was kind of surreal when you saw it,” said Prebushewski, a Realtor. “I didn’t really realize the extent of damage. It was total obliteration. Like, there’s nothing standing.” The Okanagan Indian Band estimates 30 band members lost their homes, and 200 non-band homes were destroyed Saturday evening. “There was a couple of guys that stayed back to fight the fires, and they succeeded. They did save their homes, which is crazy because I couldn’t imagine how hot it was,“ said Prebushewski. “Once the homes dropped to ash, there was like no materials left. They were completely burnt to the ground.” Prebushewski also shot footage of the damage at Newport Beach Marina on Westside Road. “The dock was damaged, the dock was burned. One of the boats must have been damaged, it appeared to be like sinking,” he said. “There is another pontoon boat that my dad witnessed on the lake that was like, burnt and sunken. The pontoons were sticking out of the water.” While there have been no reports of injuries from the Bradley Creek Wildfire, “It really wouldn’t shock me, because I think the winds at like 80km an hour, It incinerated like a hundred homes in a matter of like an hour or two,” Prebushewski said. The Realtor’s family owns a cabin on Westside road, but it was spared. “We got really, really lucky. It was, like, right across from us, but it just blew right by us,” Prebushewski said. “I don’t know how many people have home insurance. I believe a lot of them would. But I know lots of parts of Westside road you’re not able to even obtain home insurance.” He says many of the people who own property along that stretch of the lakeside have been there for decades. “It’s like generations of families, deeply ingrained in the community. Well-known families that have been here for years, that are like the heart of the community,” said Prebushewski. “Its really sad.”
