Venables Valley residents were in the middle of a FireSmart community meeting when the Shetland Creek Wildfire started coming over the mountain Wednesday, July 17, forcing them to evacuate.
"The fire started a few days ago another valley over and one of our community members arranged for the meeting with local FireSmart team," said Damador Paquette, who is member of Saranagiti Village in the Venables Valley.
"During the meeting, which was held outside, we started noticing fire on the ridge and then we were like 'OK, meeting adjourned.'"
Everyone scrambled and helped each other and within two hours everyone had left the community, he said.
"We are all safe," he told Black Press Media Thursday afternoon. "Our animals were protected by the help of our neighbours coming from Ashcroft and Cache Creek and finding them shelter."
Some of the animals were even taken out the day before, he added.
"So far we're lucky, by the Lord's will all our structures are intact in our part of the valley. It was quite dramatic seeing the fire coming down toward our small little village."
Saranagati is an off-grid village established more than 40 years ago by a group of Hare Khrisna followers to live their lifestyle and belief.
"The animals we take care of are like family members," Paquette said. "We had eight Gir cows from India, an exotic breed and a few horses."
He said he did leave his own sheep behind because he did not have the proper equipment to get them out during the urgency of the evacuation, but since then has heard the sheep are hanging around home and there is grass there for them to feed on.
"One of our community members was allowed to go in and report back to us. We have been following the advice of the professionals at BC Wildfire and it seems to be working well, the fire is avoiding our houses."
Paquette has lived in Saranagati the last four years with his wife and children.
"We have friends here and it is a wonderful place to raise our children."
There are about 25 homes, with 75 residents, including 20 children in the community.
While he did not sleep much last evening, Paquette said they were actually in Cache Creek at the muster point when they received the evacuation order from the Thompson Nicola Regional District at 9:30 p.m.
About 76 people evacuated to Cache Creek, he said.
"There's nothing like flames coming down a mountain to let you know it's time to go," he said. "I was realizing just now how insignificant we are in front of such a power. You can't fight it. You have to let nature do its thing and hope you are not in the way."
By Thursday, July 18, the Shetland Creek Wildfire had grown to 4,989 hectares. There are wildfire crews, structure protection, an incident management team, heavy equipment and aviation crews actioning the fire.
