Animal sanctuary among evacuees of Summerland wildfire

When the Bald Range fire exploded in size Friday night, many nearby residents scrambled to get out.

But for many, it wasn’t just human lives they had to think about.

Faith Affleck runs Stars Piggly Wigglys Sanctuary in Summerland, B.C., and is currently staying in Okanagan Falls with two of her rescues.

She told Global News that the last 72 hours have been “torture” for them.

“We got seven out,” she said.

“My fiancé, Trevor, he stayed to protect the farm. He’s done an amazing job. He still has no power, but people have been giving him water and stuff. And he does have a little power box to run his coffee maker,” she continued.

“But there’s been no fires on our property in 24 hours. So that’s amazing. And lack of sleep is a really bad one right now.”

Affleck said they communicate via text, but the first night was the worst because they didn’t know what was going on.

“But he sent me pictures; everything is fine on our property, the fire came down the back of our hill, and nothing has ever happened,” she said.

“Like, there’s nothing wrong with anything. No structures have been burnt. Our house is closer to the road. So the only structure at the back is one of the pig pens and I have that pig, but his house is fine. The fence is fine. There are no spot fires on the property at all and if there was, Trevor’s been on there diligently putting them out.”

Stars Piggly Wigglys Sanctuary is a safe haven for rescue pigs and Affleck said she has slept maybe one hour in the last few days as she’s so worried.

But she knew Trevor wasn’t going to leave the pigs by themselves.

“He put his foot down,” she said.

“He said he wasn’t leaving at all. He told me that even before it got really bad; he said that he’s not leaving.”

Affleck said there is a farm down the road from hers, which is fine, except a few chickens passed away, but other homes on their road did burn down.

“I’m hoping that we can go back soon,” she said.

“But I just don’t know if that’s feasible yet, because it is still going, right?”