John Pullen is breathing a sight of relief - and offering up more than a few praying-hand emojis - after his family-owned winery, Church and State, was spared from the flames of an aggressive wildfire the night of August 14.
"Last night at a quarter after six, we spotted white smoke up on the hill across from our tasting bar. Within about 45 minutes it had grown to take over most of the hillside," Pullen said. The property is located on Highway 97, a 10-minute drive south of Oliver, and includes a tasting room, cellar, vineyard and wine-making equipment.
"When that happened, we went over to our cellar which is a separate building … and we started pulling out computers, wine records, any smaller pieces of equipments we could fit in our cars and vans, then came over to watch it from our tasting bar which looks directly across from it.
"By about 10 [pm] it had made its way down to the lower level of the [hill], and at that point it swept right across to our cellar and it was about 15 metres from touching one of the buildings on our production facilities."
Two wildfires prompted an evacuation order for Oliver last night (August 14) and around 200 people left their homes. Pullen was back on his property this morning, which was not damaged. But last night he and his staff were preparing for the worst.
"We did a full barrel and bottled wine count, in the hopes that if it did burn that we would have been covered, but I don't know," he said.
Pullen isn't sure if insurance would have covered the loss.
"It's something we have to take seriously. We've never seen fires this close to where we are."
Pullen's winery wasn't the only one to narrowly escape the flames. Bruce Fuller of Rustico Winery also tweeted that his home and winery had survived the blaze.
Sandra Oldfield, CEO of Tinhorn Creek, tweeted a photo showing just how close the fire had come to Rustico's vineyard.
This has been one of the worst years on record for wildfires in B.C. After a relative calm in mid-summer, several serious fires have flared up in B.C.'s Okanagan and Kootenay regions over the past week, prompting several communities to be placed on evacuation alerts or orders. A fire that swept through the Rock Creek area starting August 14 has destroyed around 30 houses.
Ironically, the long hot summer that has created drought and fire conditions has also been particularly good for B.C. vintners. Church and State is just about to start harvesting grapes and making wine, Pullen said.
As of writing, the evacuation order was still in effect. Contact the Regional District Emergency Operations Centre 250-492-0237 or toll free 1-877-610-3737 for more information.
@jenstden
