In the heart of B.C.’s wildfire crisis

We've got beans, some canned pears, multiple cans of tuna, corn.

On Wednesday, at the food bank he runs in West Kelowna, Troy McKnight has set aside a room for wildfire donations and food hampers for evacuees.

Who just, they needed snacks and food and Gatorade and hydration to keep them going while they were in shelter, and we've been partnering very closely with the Salvation Army, who have been providing the hot meals there.

He's been accepting donations from across the province and up and down the valley, including from the local Conservative Riding Association.

Dan Albas, the MP for Okanagan-Lake West/South Kelowna, is helping the food bank employees unload a pickup truck full of Pop-Tarts, Gatorade, and protein bars.

Not their first rodeo, that's for sure.

Albas' riding includes Summerland, which was where, on August 7th, the wildfire roared down from the hill, burning homes and sending thousands running for their lives.

If you can just imagine being woken up by your cell phone alert at 1:00, 2:00 in the morning and suddenly finding that you need to be evacuated.

So that's what 12,000 residents, uh, or so from, from Summerland had on Friday night.

And, uh, many of them grabbed what they could.

Uh, hopefully they had a bag ready, but many maybe did not.

And-

Today, Albas is heading south on a long detour around the fire to Penticton, where most of his constituents have fled.

Resources, there are going to be challenges, and there have been.

People understand, uh, because anyone can see in the hills what, what firefighters are facing every day and how serious it is.

But, uh, you know, as they roll out emergency support services, as they try and roll out, uh, rationing out hotels and everything, there, there have been some major hiccups.

And so I, I just hope, I, I, I hear the premier's going to be there today.

I, I just hope that, that there's gonna be a serious review o- on these matters.

I'm not looking to pick fights.

I'm looking just to simply assist my constituents.

But getting to Albas's constituents is not so simple.

It is a long and winding detour down a dusty logging road.

We follow in our own car.

We're driving the, this 201 Forest Service Road because it's the only way to get to Penticton from Kelowna.

The Summerland fire, uh, came right across the highway, and it's still an active fire zone, so obviously driving through there is dangerous still.