A bitter-sweet time for members of the Lytton First Nation, as dozens of them are going to finally be headed back to their community again next week, more than a year after fire destroyed their homes.

BC Hydro is currently powering up 39 modular homes for an unspecified number of Lytton First Nation members to return to.

Lytton Nation Deputy Chief John Haugen does note that those returning from different communities, such as Kamloops and as far away as Chilliwack, will be coming back to a community lacking in essential services, including a grocery store.

“There’s no grocery stores locally that provide meat or vegetables. So they have to go at least one hour each way. You could go to hope or Ashcroft or Lillooet.”

And he notes travel in and out of the area also remains a challenge due to lingering road work left over from November’s atmospheric river.

“A lot of restrictions because there’s single-lane traffic to Highway 12 going to Lillooet, and the same going to Hope. There’s single-lane traffic at Jackass Mountain and it causes a bottleneck.”

Haugen says those being put up in the modular homes, which are scattered in different parts of the First Nation, will not include those who lost their homes in last month’s Nohomin Creek wildfire, which is now burning away from homes and communities.

Eight homes were destroyed at the start of last month’s fire, six of which were occupied, and two that were vacant.

This comes as the Lytton First Nation, as well as those in the Village of Lytton, struggle to rebuild after last year’s devastating fire, which destroyed much of the Village and numerous homes in the Lytton First Nation.

Speaking to Radio NL on June 30th, marking the one year anniversary of the fire, BC Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth argued it has been a “complex” rebuild because of the archaeological significance of the village of Lytton which experts believe was occupied by Indigenous People about 10,000 years ago.

That, he says, has added to the complex rebuild as every resident needed to get a permit costing about $10,000.

“We know that for people waiting to get back to their properties and to rebuild their homes and lives, the recovery process can’t move fast enough,” Farnworth said at the time. “What I want people to know is we are committed to rebuilding. We are working very hard with the council, with the First Nations, to rebuild it.”

A report by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction concluded that the fire could not have been stopped, even with an area-wide emergency response. It says scientists found the root cause of the fire was “easily ignitable structures and homes, and not just a wildfire problem.”

The federal government has announced $77-million in funding to help rebuild Lytton into a fire-resistant and energy-efficient community. That is on top of the $49 million announced by the provincial government to help with remediation and rebuilding of Lytton.