VANCOUVER—At night, the cries of the horses left behind are what disturbs Joe Dunstan’s sleep.
Though the blaze arrived suddenly and didn’t last long, he’s still coming to realize how much he was affected mentally by the blaze that swept through the area and is best known for destroying the village of Lytton.“I watched my house melt in front of me and I ran,” he said. “Dreams. You might call them nightmares. The screams of my horses that didn’t make it.”, those who witnessed first hand the destruction an inferno can bring can’t help but be on edge.
“There’s always the early spring fires in April, cause someone’s burning grass and it gets away cause it’s really dry,” McCann said. “That kind of gets everybody tuned up.” Those who lost their homes still await the village’s rebuilding, McCann said, but some have simply called it quits — the town’s pre-fire population of 250 is quietly shrinking.
Meanwhile, many who stay face long commutes to work, or just to complete basic errands, out of town. There is a small grocery store and some other services nearby but social life is lacking, McCann said.