Squamish rallies for fire victims

Ali Abolfathi is thankful he, his wife and children are safe — but they lost just about everything in the Squamish Valley fire, including their house.

Preliminary estimates — not including other structures like cabins and sheds — by the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District show three houses were burned down and between 60 to 100 people were displaced.

The evacuation order for the area has been lifted, but a large swath of land remains on alert. At press deadline, authorities said the fire was unlikely to grow. The blaze was "under contol,” and crews were dealing with leftover hot spots.

The BC Wildfire Service says the fire is human-caused and an investigation is ongoing.

Abolfathi is the owner of the Squamish Valley Campground, which was completely decimated by the blaze.

“Everything is burned down,” he told The Chief.

He said he’s been talking with his insurer, and he’s hoping something can be worked out shortly. In the meantime, with help from the Red Cross and emergency social services, he, his wife and two grown children are staying at a Squamish hotel.

Abolfathi said that it all began when he saw smoke billowing from nearby fields.

He raced to that area to help fight that fire. Afterward, he helped rescue several horses that were in the path of the flames.

But when he returned to his house, he saw the fire had spread.

RCMP officers were there, urging the family to leave, he said.

“It was a state of shock — like, the house was burning and I was thinking, ‘No, it’s not going to burn,’” said Abolfathi.

“At that time, the helicopter bomber was up and they were trying to throw water at the roof. And unfortunately, the house was on fire from underneath the awning... those water bombers couldn’t reach the fire. The intensity of the fire was so high, even the metals... melted.”

He said the fire took away priceless possessions.

“All the memories, all the ornaments, all the old pictures from the kids, all the clothes, all the valuable things that we have — like, you know, the pictures [of] grandma, grandpa,” said Abolfathi. “They’re all gone. Things that are not replaceable by money or insurance.”

However, amid this terrible loss, he said that the community of Squamish has been incredibly helpful.

Locals are raising money through a GoFundMe page to help the family get back on their feet.

He said that locals have been donating clothes and food, among other things, to help him and his family through this tough time.

“We can’t thank them [enough]...we love them and we thank them and we appreciate what they have done,” he said.

“I hope someday we can return the favour to somebody who needs help...I can’t stress how much it means to us.”

Abolfathi is not alone in his situation.

At the end of the driveway to the scorched property of Amanda Morris and her partner, Andrew Boyd, stands a golden owl proudly perched on a stump, placed pre-fire so people could find their home.

“It lifts my spirits to see him there,” said Morris.

Beyond the owl and a couple of blueberry plants, Morris and Boyd lost everything else in the Magee Road fire that swept through the Squamish Valley starting on Wednesday, April 15.

Morris and Boyd are well-known members of the community. Morris is the owner of Squamish Gymnastics and Freestyle Arts, which has seen two decades worth of youth pass through its programs.

Boyd is well known for his work and dedication to mountain biking, and creating rock climbing and trail building infrastructure in town.

He is responsible for hundreds of climbing routes and boulder problems in Squamish and beyond. 

“Thousands of hours and countless dollars of his own money have been spent over the decades producing undoubtedly some of the highest quality climbs that are out there. If that wasn’t enough, he decided to get into trail building. Treasure Trail and Pleasure Trail are his creations,” said their friend Chris Weldon, who set up the GoFundMe campaign “Help Amanda and Andrew. Home lost in Valley Fire.”

Boyd and Morris gave their blessing for the campaign, which had reached more than $60,000 by April 23.

“The cabin itself along with my home office and computer for my businesses is completely gone,” Morris told The Chief, adding their recently planted food garden and two vehicles were also lost.

The couple also lost two shipping containers that held Boyd’s tools, trials bikes, mountain bikes, climbing and camping gear. Morris’ contained everything from the design side of her business including sewing machines, serger, clothing and costume design studio items. It also held her costume collection, paddleboard, bike, camping and snowboard equipment.

“We are safe and staying with friends for the short term and overwhelmed by the incredible support from our community,” Morris said.

The couple has not yet secured longer-term accommodations, but has had several “generous offers,” Morris said, adding that they are just trying to wrap their heads around what has happened at this point.

“We would love nothing more than to rebuild in the Squamish Valley, I have been at that spot since 2006. We have yet to determine what will be feasible,” she said.

They’ve had offers of donations of clothing and household items, but have yet to sort out a storage location to receive donations.

“I do want to say a huge thank you and send so much love out to everyone in our community and beyond for all the love and support. We are so fortunate to be a part of this community for the last 20 years.”

Neighbours helping neighbours

In addition to the fundraisers that have been created for victims of the fire, people found other ways to lend a hand.

One of those people is Lisa Relling. She lives in West Vancouver, but has an Airstream trailer in the Squamish Valley right by her sister’s place.

She and her sibling were relatively lucky. A cabin on her sister’s property burned down, but everything else was spared from the flames.

“When I first went to our camper, my first thought was how lucky we were,” said Relling. “And my second thought was how unpredictable fire is. Because there were just spots of burn... in so many random places. It was just crazy.”

Reflecting on the situation, Relling and her sister kept thinking about the firefighters who were battling the blaze.

“One thing that kept coming up with my sister was how she felt so bad about the volunteers and the firemen and the food,” said Relling. “They were working tirelessly.”

She also noted that COVID-19 has also made it harder for people to grab a bite to eat.

So Relling ended up phoning the local Walmart and White Spot, which both agreed to donate food for the firefighters battling the flames.

Relling then picked up the grub on April 17 and brought it to the front lines. The food was then distributed to the volunteers and career firefighters battling the blaze.

Gord Stevenson, the general manager of Squamish’s White Spot, said that COVID-19 has hurt the business, but when it came to helping firefighters, he jumped at the idea.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Stevenson. “We did what we could.”

As a result, they gave sandwiches and salads to help fuel hungry first responders.

Squamish Walmart’s temporary store manager, Cathy Lau, said the store acted quickly to supply water and granola bars to the cause.

Lau said it was important for her team to help out, given the state of emergency, and the added difficulty first responders are facing due to COVID-19.

“I really wanted to thank the volunteers and the firefighters for what they’re doing,” said Lau. “They should really be the ones that are getting the recognition, because that’s not an easy job, especially during this pandemic.”