In Okanagan real estate, the bliss outweighs the risks

KELOWNA - From Saturday's Globe and Mail (Written by Jane Armstrong)

Last updated on Monday, Jul. 27, 2009 03:38AM EDT

It was a quintessential Okanagan summer afternoon. As sunbathers lingered on the beach and boats bobbed in the water, a spectacular mushroom cloud grew in the sky, not unlike the plume that rose after the twin towers collapsed in New York.

The smoke was from the Terrace Mountain fire, which would double in size overnight and will burn for the rest of the summer northwest of Kelowna.

Despite a few oohs and aahs, the Okanagan holiday makers weren't fazed by the smoke and fire. They went back to their beach towels and summer cocktails.

Canadians have fallen in love with the Kelowna region, and they aren't about to let a little smoke and fire dissuade them from buying homes and condos and vineyards in record numbers.

Six years after forest fires destroyed more than 300 Kelowna homes in what was thought to have been a once-in-a-lifetime event, the fires roared back last week to the increasingly populated Okanagan, destroying three houses and a mobile home.

By Thursday, a layer of smoke hung over the city from the Terrace Mountain fire, and pieces of ash wafted through the air.

But there is no exodus. In fact, after the 2003 fire, television news footage of Kelowna's hillside homes - replete with their large decks and million-dollar views - might even have helped fuel a development boom that spiked in 2005.

"Canadians love living in the forest," said Nick Arkle, whose relatives lost two homes in the fire. Mr. Arkle lives in the Glenrosa neighbourhood, where fire struck last week. His house was spared though flames came to within 200 metres of his front door.

"We live where we live because we like it," he added. "It's part of being Canadian. You will not scare people out of the forest." Even as thousands of residents fled their homes last week when fires threatened an entire subdivision, local planning departments continued to process thousands of new residential and commercial building permits.

Much of the boom is happening on the west side of the lake in what is now the municipality of West Kelowna. That region had the fastest population growth in Canada between 2001 and 2006. Next door, in Kelowna proper, the city's population has swelled to 110,000, a near doubling in 20 years.

One Okanagan spot where the pace of development is white hot is the Westbank First Nation, where there are 5,000 residential units under development on the west side of Okanagan Lake, not far from where the fires started last weekend.

Jayne Fosbery, Westbank's economic development officer, said the fires won't put a dent in development plans. It's not hard to see why. Tourists have long flocked to the vineyards, golf courses, ski hills and resorts that surround the region's crown jewel, Okanagan Lake. Mild winters and hot, sunny summers persuaded many vacationers to stay for good.

What many of these so-called lifestyle refugees demanded was a single-family house in a wooded setting with a view of the lake.

Shawn Smith was one of those refugees. The Air Canada flight attendant from Gimli, Man., was on a layover in Kelowna 20 years ago when she called her husband and suggested they move to the region.

The couple moved to nearby Peachland, then bought a split-level home on a hillside in the Glenrosa neighbourhood of what is now West Kelowna.

Ms. Smith's house has the requisite deck with a lake view.

Years ago, that view was mainly of orchards and farms leading down to the water. Today, the lake view is still there, but clusters of new housing developments dot the landscape, as well as a host of big-box stores, including a new Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire.

Ms. Smith, 57, was out walking her dog in the woods last Saturday morning before the fires started. By midafternoon, the same forest was engulfed in flames and the fire was moving toward her home.

She packed some photos and her dog in the car and fled. On Wednesday, she returned with her next-door neighbour, Christine Riggs. Both homes reeked of smoke as if someone had been barbecuing indoors. Ms. Riggs had burn holes in her deck. Ms. Smith's eavestroughs were bent from the heat.

Like many long-term Okanagan residents, Ms. Smith has a philosophical take on forest fire: "It's the chance you take when you want to live here."

But fire officials warn the odds might be worsening for people who live on the edge of B.C.'s vast wilderness.

This summer is shaping up to be one of the driest in recent memory. In fact, Tim Ewart, B.C.'s deputy fire service manager, said conditions in the Okanagan are drier and hotter than the summer that preceded the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Fire, which erupted in mid-August.

That, combined with swaths of trees chewed by pine beetles, have made many B.C. forests susceptible to devastating fires, said Mr. Ewart, who helped Okanagan officials attack last week's blazes.

As humans and development inch further out of the city - as has been the case in the central Okanagan - it's inevitable that forest fires will collide with the inhabitants, which, in firefighting jargon, is called an interface fire.

"For the last 20 years, we've been experiencing the phenomenon of interface," Mr. Ewart said. "Kelowna is a classic interface," he said, adding that much of British Columbia outside the Lower Mainland falls into the same category.

Mr. Ewart said communities and residents can do a lot to reduce the risk of those fires. Homeowners should replace wooden siding and roofs with fire-resistant materials. And communities can "clean" or harvest nearby forests to rid them of dead braches and needles, which fuel fires. They can also ensure there are roads and fields to act as firebreaks.

Mr. Arkle, whose two brothers-in-law lost their homes last week, agreed.

He is the chief forester at the Gorman Brothers mill in West Kelowna, which was saved from incineration last week when dozens of employees fought off the encroaching fire.

But he argued that homeowners and communities can do only so much to keep fires from leaping into towns.

"What we saw this weekend was a catastrophic event," Mr. Arkle said. "When you have a huge event like this, there is not much you can do. There is an inherent danger when you live on the edge of the forest."

Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd, whose tenure coincided with the city's growth spurt, said city officials are addressing sprawl. Kelowna's official plan is now geared toward increasing density in the downtown with more apartments and condominiums.

"If we are going to accommodate growth, we will have to better manage it," Ms. Shepherd said. But persuading newcomers to move downtown is still a tough sell.

"People really like to come to our community and buy single-family homes," she said.

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