Dear Editor,
To all the brave firefighters who saved our homes in the Oregon Jack Creek Valley and in Venables Valley next door, I would like to express extreme gratitude. To the TNRD with their magnificent support during our evacuation, and to Barbara Roden, Mayor of Ashcroft, and Josh White, Fire Chief, Ashcroft, for their excellent reporting on Facebook during the frightening days of the Shetland Creek fire, I am again overwhelmed with gratitude.
Margot Landels
Ashcroft, B.C.
Dear Editor,
Here they go again! They said they learned about how to fight fires. Well, they better go back to school.
When they didn’t even try to put out the Lytton fire [in 2021] it went all the way to Highway 8 and destroyed people’s homes and property. Now again we have the disaster of range/home losses.
When lightning struck the Shetland and Twaal lands, all they had to do was use retardant ASAP. Instead, they said it was only a tree burning and it would be “too expensive”. Now look at the costs and the dire losses: the rangelands for all ranchers, and the homes and lands in Venables Valley; the losses of cattle; the tremendous stress our families have gone through.
These people who have made these decisions should be fined and thrown in jail, and definitely lose their jobs. Again, it will take years to get the range back. This is the second time we have lost our cattle range. There better be compensation for this.
Joyce Walkem
Spences Bridge, B.C.
