It Takes a Village: Okanagan Community Rallies to Rescue Horses From Wildfire

As the Bald Range wildfire rapidly spread in B.C.’s Okanagan on Aug. 7, it wasn’t only people trying to escape. Herds of horses and cattle, as well as household pets, were also caught in the path of the flames.At one point, a woman was seen galloping down a road on horseback, with fire raging on either side as she fled the flames, according to local resident Sherri Paiement. It was one of many scenes of chaos as residents across the Okanagan scrambled to save themselves and their animals.Paiement has been part of the effort to rescue horses from the Wild Horse Mountain Ranch in Garnet Valley near Summerland, B.C. The effort has brought the community closer together as residents rallied to get not only themselves but also their four-legged friends to safety.In this particular effort, horses were rescued from the ranch and brought to the Barn Equestrian centre in Kelowna, after those at the centre saw smoke rising in the distance above owner Kathrin Maxwell’s family ranch in Garnet Valley on Friday Aug. 7.“We spent all Friday night evacuating horses out of Garnet Valley, and we’ve got 10 rescue horses here right now,” said Paiement, a longtime friend and former business partner of Maxwell who helped at the equestrian centre as others set out with trailers to rescue the horses.“Off they go to hitch up the trailers, and off they go to Summerland. They get in there, and it’s absolutely a war zone,” Paiement told The Epoch Times regarding the experience.“Pretty crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.”The B.C. Wildfire Service currently lists more than 100 active wildfires across B.C., and the province remains under a state of emergency as of Aug. 10.The Bald Range wildfire near Peachland and Summerland in B.C.’s Okanagan region has already led to evacuation orders for more than 20,000 people, while RCMP also said Aug. 9 that an 80-year-old woman “died suddenly” due to the wildfire while trying to escape with a family member from Meadow Valley near Summerland.One of the rescued horses from the Wild Horse Mountain Ranch stands in peace at the Barn Equestrian centre in Kelowna, B.C. Courtesy of Sherrie Paiement‘The Real Heroes’Maxwell’s ranch has been in the family for roughly three decades since the family moved to the Garnet Valley from Germany and built up a business around offering trail rides and backcountry tours.All 15 horses at Wild Horse Mountain Ranch, as well as its dogs and cats, were successfully evacuated, Paiement said. She noted that although the ranch burned down, the successful rescue of the ranch’s horses forms the heart of an inspiring story about Okanagan residents and the power of community spirit.“I think the real heroes here on this story are the people that had trucks and trailers, horse trailers, from all over the Okanagan,” Paiement said. “They hear the call. They got in their trucks and trailers.”Paiement said that a whole group of residents formed a network of volunteers from Vernon, Kelowna, Peachland, and elsewhere in the region, coordinating to save pets, horses, and cattle in addition to human beings.“There was a network of people that were all talking and communicating on Facebook,” she added. “They got down into Summerland and the roads were closed. But when you had a truck and trailer, [officials] let you through basically as best as they could until they had to finally close it because it was too dangerous.”Paiement added that these volunteers “saved most of the animals that they could,” thinking more of the welfare of others and the animals they loved than their own immediate self-interest.For the animals who couldn’t be saved on some other properties with fast-moving flames, Paiement said some residents wrote their numbers on horses with spray paint or markers and let them loose, “setting them free, which was their best chance,” in some cases.The Garnet Valley, B.C., on Aug. 7, 2026, as horses were being evacuated by Candy and Dirk Van Hees to be taken to safety at the Barn Equestrian centre in Kelowna, B.C. Courtesy of Candy and Dirk Van Hees‘Never Seen Anything Like It’Paiement said the dry conditions and high winds often left residents with little time to act quickly to save their herds and themselves.“People just didn’t have a chance,” she said. “It was a disaster. It was a war zone, really, honestly.”Paiement talked about one scene that was reported back to her of a woman escaping the only way available to her as the flames rushed toward her property.“One lady was on her horse, galloping down the road just to get away. There’s fire on either side,” Paiement said. “Everyone that described it said they’d never seen anything like it.”Farmers and ranchers ordered to evacuate in the ongoing wildfires have often faced difficult choices as they struggled to find a way to protect livestock that couldn’t be easily transported.Paiement echoed this, noting that getting a scared horse into a trailer during a wildfire can be extremely difficult.“It takes a village to get a horse into a horse trailer and evacuate them from a tense situation,” she said. “Their environment is changed, and so you try and squeeze them into a tin can and tell them it’s going to be okay and drive them down a highway.”B.C. Premier David Eby has also commented on the difficult situation.“I can’t think of anything more difficult for a farmer than being faced with an evacuation notice while knowing that your animals are potentially in distress,” he said at a press conference on Aug. 6, adding that the most important goal was to protect human life.At one farm near Vernon, nine individuals recently remained on the property with more than 100 animals despite roads having closed as they awaited trucks and trailers to come evacuate the variety of livestock and pets, including horses, pigs, ducks, and dogs.Another rescue effort earlier this month saw 30 cattle and five horses belonging to rancher Will Unruh evacuated from his ranch near Green Lake, B.C., with help from a team with the local regional district, as the ranch came under threat from the encroaching Pear Lake wildfire.The Bald Range wildfire, that has forced people out of their homes in the south Okanagan region, burns in Summerland, B.C., late on Aug.8, 2026. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP‘All She Cared About’After helping evacuate her family’s ranch and suffering the tragedy of knowing it had burned to the ground, Maxwell has opened her equestrian centre in Kelowna to numerous horses forced from their homes by the fire.“As much as … it’s hard when it’s your family home, all she did was step up and make sure that everyone else was looked after,” Paiement said.“All she cared about was the people around her and cared about the horses.”Paiement emphasized that despite the tragic losses suffered, the encouraging and inspiring story is the way people stood up for each other and the horses—a point of hope amid the devastation.“The equestrian community stepped up, and that’s exactly what they did,” she said.“People can get out with cars, but they can’t necessarily get out with their livestock,” she added.“The fact that there was the community support rallying around to make sure those people could not worry about their horses and then just worry about their own selves—I think that is an incredible story.”