Special Feature

When Mother Nature decides to unleash her fury, the human equation can become pretty small.

When wildfire bears down on communities and people are forced to flee or be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice, best laid plans are left behind and lives can begin to unravel.

Cache Creek and Ashcroft, B.C., area residents learned that all too well in the summer of 2017 when the Elephant Hill wildfire ravaged about 12,000-square-kilometres of landscape. It was the largest fire in the province that fire season, which saw 50,000 people in B.C.’s Central Interior evacuated.

The systemic impact on society from such a disruption continues to ripple outward one year later, with many businesses struggling to regain their feet.

“We still have a devastated region. The entire Interior is devastated. It is going to take us years” to get back, said Community Futures Sun Country general manager Debbie Arnott, who was twice evacuated from her Mile 16 homes during the Elephant Hill wildfire.

Arnott and Community Futures immediately went to work during the crisis in trying to help business owners deal with enormous losses due to the wildfire, evacuations and highway closures.

Nadine Davenport, owner of Unitea Brew and Café in downtown Ashcroft, located across the street from Community Futures, watched along with everyone else in town as the Elephant Hill wildfire exploded northward toward Cache Creek.

Even though the Elephant Hill wildfire started right beside Ashcroft, the village of 1,558 was not evacuated.

“It very well could have jumped the river and come across. And then we would have been trapped, pretty much,” Davenport said. “We dodged a bullet as people might say. It was pretty scary. Somebody said it was already into the cemetery and we were all freaking out. It was crazy. There were people who actually didn’t understand it was a fire and they were in the Thrift Store, ‘what? There’s a fire? There’s no fire! Ah they’ll take care of it.’ Nobody understood how quickly the winds were going and how quickly it went over that mountain. It took out Boston Flats in 25 minutes. And then Cache Creek was the next possible. They did a real good job there. It was a really terrible time.”

Davenport said she thought the town should have been evacuated.

“That’s my personal opinion; because we didn’t have power, we didn’t have Wi-Fi or services eventually. We couldn’t flush our toilets after a while,” she said.

“The whole wildfire thing was so… “ she paused, her eyes widening, “widespread – the impact it has had on me and businesses. It is almost like the psyche of people has been attacked.”

One year after the outbreak of the fire, “it’s been somewhat of a depressed market,” she admitted.

“It’s a depressed environment where people are not the same. They’re worried about spending so they don’t spend as much. They don’t really know where they are going to have to be. Maybe they are going to have to be in a hotel room. Maybe they have to buy large amounts of gas. A lot of people have been affected. It’s a very insular kind of feeling where you don’t go out.

“We’re the kind of community that tries to come together and support each other and we do it well with the different events we have but the day-to-day, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. traffic or people doing their business has definitely been lessened.”

That is part of the challenge facing Arnott and Community Futures, as they work to help their clients as much as possible. One of those clients is Davenport, who says Community Futures has played a pivotal role in getting her into her business and helping along the way.

Davenport arrived in Ashcroft from Vancouver almost 11 years ago, following a love of music and eventually ended up working for the Village of Ashcroft. She had always dreamed of opening a café.

In the process of putting together a business plan, she learned that Community Futures Sun Country had one on file.

“Even though it wasn’t integral, for me it was like a starting point,” she said.

Davenport took the Small Business Program offered by Community Futures and believes it laid a solid foundation, as did the loan she received from it.

“I think I have done it the right way. It certainly advantageous to do it in a developmental stage and create an opportunity for yourself to get as much income coming in,” she said.

“They really helped me out and still help me out. They are very encouraging taking me through the steps, keeping me on task and keeping me accountable. They are basically the biggest cheerleader I’ve had in my business.”

That cheerleading has also been mentorship during this time of crisis.

“Not only has the depressed market hurt me in my bottom line, I am realizing that I have to move and create new opportunities for myself to exist. And that’s just not because of the wildfire – that’s because peoples’ choices in wanting tea have changed, too, because they’re not spending a lot. So I’ve had to change” and that is to expand what she offers in Unitea.

Through Community Futures support she is taking a bartender’s course and utilizing a business coach.

“I’ve had to almost change the brand of my company, if you will.”

Davenport explained she was “about to unleash” changes in her business prior to the wildfire but then “it began to be about survival mode.”

The worst of the crisis lasted about five days, with power off for about four. The lack of power meant the lack of business as cash machines could not be accessed nor could card machines be read. Of course, contents in fridges and freezers did not stand a chance in the sweltering summer heat.

“I had to throw out some stuff. Luckily I don’t have a large stock here. I cleaned out the entire fridge. You just turf everything, right, and then bleach it out,” Davenport said.

To add to the loss in business, the highway was closed even longer and wide afield word of the fires kept would-be visitors at home.

 

However, Community Futures has been there every step of the way.

“Since then, Community Futures has been my way of finding out what funds are available and they have their relationship with the Red Cross, they have a relationship with the business owners and the training; it’s really been amazing what they have done. It feels like I have been taken care of in the way of ‘we’re not going to let you go down. We’re going to do everything we can to bridge the gap.’ It has been integral from the start, with the loans and the guidance and knowing what was expected of me as a new business owner.”

Deb Arnott also suggested Davenport rent the space she currently occupies.

“Community Futures has been a big, big part of what you see here and my struggle to stay with the key to the door and stuff in the fridge to sell.”

With another intense fire season once again ravishing British Columbia one year later, Davenport said she is worried about a continued decline in visitors, which has been unsettlingly noticeable this summer.

“Tourism is there but it is the Europeans where as before it had been Canadians doing the 300 km radius,” she said, adding lingering uncertainty and concern keeps many people away now.

“The local community is trying to support all its businesses but it is hard. They don’t have a lot of money, too.”

A part of her business has been musical performances and despite doubling the number of shows, customer counts are down.

“It’s day to day,” she said, explaining recent events have made her “a better asker.”

That has led to more opportunities through Community Futures.

“I don’t have a business partner but I kind of feel like I do because I have to be prepared to take their advice, too, and not be bullheaded and say ‘I’m the owner of this business; I make the decisions! They are tapped into our community. They know what will work, or not yet.”

Davenport applied for and received wildfire recovery funds – approved at the end of June (2018).

At the same time she learned she would get some support, her business was broken into and her guitar was stolen. The $550 she is getting “will help her with her window,” Arnott shrugged.

“But it’s exactly what she needed right now.”

She will also be taking a bartending course, thanks to Community Futures funding support that will lead to her serving alcohol at Unitea.

Lead image: Nadine Davenport, owner of Unitea Brew and Café. Photos by Ian Cobb

– This article is part two of a series commissioned by Community Futures East Kootenay.

– Ian Cobb

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