Overview

An evacuee tells her harrowing, unforgettable story of fleeing the largest and most devastating fire in West Kelowna's history. August 2023 saw the worst wildfire season the province of B.C. has ever recorded. A major contributor: the McDougall Creek wildfire, which expanded rapidly into an inferno of such terrifying proportions (13,970 hectares/34,522 acres) that firefighters feared it might be unstoppable. Over the next few days, 35,000 residents were evacuated, at short notice and under looming threat. Among them was author Judith Hutchinson-Lepore, her husband Lorenzo, and their intrepid Australian shepherd, Oliver. This memoir chronicles their month-long odyssey, enduring nomadic living, emotional turmoil, and the agonizing uncertainty of whether their house had survived. But it is also a story of hope: Finding the Phoenix and rising from the ashes. A testament to the courage of the 500 firefighters from across the province who risked life and limb to fight the blaze; the dedicated leaders of West Kelowna; and the determination of a community banding together to overcome an unimaginable catastrophe. This mesmerizing account serves as both a cautionary tale about natural disasters on the rise, and an inspirational tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.

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9781738277810

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Reviews

""Among the many things I loved about ""Finding the Phoenix"" is that it gives a human face to these sometimes mainly statistical disasters. You hear about them, read about them, see the numbers of acres burned, and the number of people evacuated, but you just have no concept of what it's like. This memoir made me feel the anguish, the fear, the challenge to one's sense of fairness, one's despair of ever being able to feel secure again. The survivor's guilt, and the way that the ones whose houses were burned down and the ones whose weren't were eventually able to find a way to be together. And the language is so approachable-I felt like I was talking to the author in a coffee shop..."" Beth Johnson, former mayor of Delta, B.C. ""Judith Lepore has written a powerful account of a harrowing time. It relives the mass destruction wreaked by the McDougall Creek wildfire of 2023, including the devastation of her neighbourhood, Royal Heights Properties. This is a must read, sharing her intimate thoughts: raw, emotional, and very personal. Ms. Lepore bravely allows the reader to enter her mind as she navigates the nightmare she faced..."" J. Harris, Strata President, Royal Heights Properties

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