Burned vehicles are seen at a property destroyed by the Bush Creek East wildfire, in Scotch Creek on Sept. 6, 2023. (Photo via Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
A group of North Shuswap residents are working to try and help people who were impacted by the Bush Creek East Fire this summer.
They’ve formed the North Shuswap Disaster Relief Society which aims to direct the roughly $500,000 that has been donated to local charities and non-profits over the past few months.
“All the funding we’re working from was donated during the fire and after the fire and is still being donated from the good people in Kamloops and the North Shuswap and Salmon Arm and really all over the place,” Columbia-Shuswap Regional District North Shuswap Director Jay Simpson said on NL Newsday.
“It is going into the Shuswap Community Foundation and then filtering into the community through us.”
Simpson says there are five people – Kris Jensen, Debbie Seymour, Doug Easterbrook, Ted Danyluk, and Bill Holtby – who make up the initial Board of the Directors for the North Shuswap Disaster Relief Society.
He says the society is working closely with the Shuswap Community Foundation, with Jensen also sitting on the board of the Foundation.
“They determined that the fastest way to get some money into the community would be for a local society,” Simpson said.
“And so on October 17 we incorporated this society so its only been in shape for about a month, but we have already put about $70,000 allocated to local people here.”
Over 170 homes and cabins in the North Shuswap were destroyed by the Bush Creek East fire this year, while about 50 others were partially damaged.
“We’ve got, I don’t know, maybe 20 or 30 people that are kind of in dire straits,” Simpson said, noting some people have been left homeless by the fire.
“We know that winter is coming and we need to get them situated for the long haul and get them through the winter and then buy us some time so that by the springtime we can figure out long term solutions.”
The CSRD lifted a blanket moratorium on the issuance of building permits late last month, allowing people to being rebuilding.
People can reach out to the North Shuswap Disaster Relief Society online here or by email here.
