Firsthand witnessing of hope’s destruction
Finding the Phoenix: An Evacuee’s Memoir of the McDougall Creek Wildfire
by Judith Lepore
Kelowna: Orion Press, 2025
$19.99 / 9781738277810
Reviewed by Myshara McMyn
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There is no way to conceptualize a forest fire until you see the devastation one truly brings. The community, the people, and the infrastructure are impacted in terrifying ways.
Living in British Columbia my whole life, I’ve experienced a few fires myself. I was a kid when my parents evacuated us from the Okanagan Mountain Park wildfire in 2003. Thankfully, we returned to our house to find it undamaged. In 2017, I stared out from my downtown balcony in Kamloops to the worst air quality and smokiest summer ever recorded. Once again back in Kelowna, I saw the McDougall Creek Wildfire burning across the lake. I watched from Black Mountain as the fire crested it and spread quickly through the trees. At night, I witnessed the fire gain ground in the darkness. I was scared when I heard that the fire jumped the lake, and suddenly I didn’t live far enough away and not being able to drive was simply not good. I couldn’t imagine the fear of those living in West Kelowna.
Finding the Phoenix is the memoir of Judith Lepore, an evacuee of the McDougall Creek Wildfire. When I was asked to review this memoir, I felt instantly drawn to the story. This was the experience I spent so much time wondering about while staring across the lake.
Judith’s experience starts with something most of us are familiar with—an evacuation alert. An evacuation alert is issued when a fire has the potential to threaten homes or properties but hasn’t proven that it will be that threat yet. It means make sure you have what you need to survive if you have to leave: things like birth certificates, money, and other important paperwork or objects. I’ve watched people do the same thing as Judith so many times. She grabbed a few things to pack in case they had to leave, but there wasn’t any hurry in the motions. It’ll pass—they’ll lift the alert by morning, and we’ll have gotten all up in a huff for nothing. Let’s just wait and see.
Then it doesn’t lift. Suddenly, the alert turns into an evacuation order. This means the threat is here and we need to abandon ship. Lives come before houses and possessions. But, like was the case for Judith and her husband, a house can represent the achievement of a years-old goal of moving to the Okanagan. They spent a lot of this book grieving the possibility that they were being shoved backwards.
Many communities have faced that reality. Last year, the town of Jasper experienced devastating loss that changed the community forever. A few years before, it was Lytton that burned to the ground. These communities, as well as West Kelowna and many others, know what it feels like to have those physical representations of their lives and achievements taken away. Sometimes, these communities also feel the impact of life lost—both of neighbours and the firefighters that brave the flaming streets and forests to fight for our homes.
Throughout the story, Judith hears updates from her neighbours about their street. For so long, they didn’t have any updates or any eyes on their homes. Were they burnt to the ground? Untouched? A working doorbell camera survived for a time before its power was cut. Some houses were standing, but it was so hard to see. Judith experiences a brief and tentative glimpse of hope that maybe their dream home is holding up. It was another crazy corner on the rollercoaster of hope, fear, frustration, and numb acceptance. When the winds can change in a second, how true will that information be in a few hours, much less a few days or weeks?
Judith and her husband were fortunate that so many friends had room for them to stay. They traveled back and forth across southern BC to stay in the free homes of a variety of friends, making their displacement more comfortable than those who stayed in emergency centres or sheltered wherever they could. Everywhere they went, they found people who cared deeply about their situation and offered food, shelter, or comfort. It’s one of the amazing, beautiful things about the place we live.\
Finding the Phoenix is an important story. Many people living in places like BC have stories like this one. Descriptions of varying levels of destruction and grief litter the pages. It’s one thing to know that these stories are out there—and another thing entirely to get to know someone through the disintegration and reintegration of their home, their community, and their dreams.
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Myshara McMyn is a marketing coordinator, social media manager, and aspiring writer living in the Shuswap. She runs the blog Lit&Leta. She spends her time teaching Dungeons and Dragons, reading as much as she can, and helping out on her family’s farm. She holds a BA in English and Creative Writing. [Editor’s note: Myshara McMyn has reviewed books by Courtney Shepard, Kate Gateley, Elle Tesch, Jae Waller, Kate Gateley, and S.M. Freedman for The British Columbia Review.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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