Remembering the fiery nightmare of 2003

THE GARGANTUAN tree stretches its grotesque and blackened limbs towards the sky in a pleading fashion. It stands alone on an acre or more of burned stumps, mixed with weeds, close to Highway 97 near the Whispering Pines area of Falkland.
Each day during my travels through this devastated area, that skeleton of a once stately tree reminds me of the nightmare, which took place in what has been called the Cedar Hill Fire. However, it was just a small portion of the whole picture as the province seemed to be engulfed in flames throughout the month of August, 2003.
Before the fires were extinguished in what has been called ‘The Day From Hell’ or, perhaps, more appropriately should be called ‘The Weeks From Hell’ as scorching temperatures, coupled with tinder-dry trees and rotting underbrush, threatened everyone throughout the Okanagan. It caused massive devastation from Kelowna to Peachland to Kamloops to Barriere to Louis Creek and beyond.
And since that 2003 Falkland Fire when I pass that grotesque tree I usually murmur, facetiously: “Welcome to paradise.”
When the sun started to beat down on my valley and throughout the Okanagan the other day, my thoughts stretched back five years and I again began to re-read an e-mail from Saturday, August 16 of that cruel year.
It read: “I’m glad things are starting to get back back to normal near your place. It was a strange drive to Penticton this morning. The fire, which began last night, had spread all around the mountain by mid-afternoon, blanketing nearby Peachland and Kelowna in a thick cloud of smoke.
“I’ve driven through burnt-out Louis Creek and past the blackened hills near Whispering Pines – but neither compared to the eeriness of my hometown filled with wildfire smoke. Anyway, I’m sure you know the feeling after the events of this strange summer. Signed, David.
Besides, the e-mail, David forwarded a story he had written for August 6, 2003. It read, in part: “Black smoke still curls from patches of Shea Alexander’s backyard nearly a week after a devastating wildfire started alongside Highway 97, a stone’s throw from the teen’s house. It’s suspected the fire started after a driver flicked a lit cigarette out the window. Alexander, 15, stood in his backyard Wednesday surveying the blackened hillside behind his country home, a 10-minute drive from Falkland. He ventured up a narrow dirt road toward the highway to inspect what’s left of his stepfather’s workshop.”
In a strange twist of fate, both the e-mail and the story were written by David Wylie, who would become the first managing editor of the Vernon Daily Courier less than two years later and now works in Ottawa in 2008, and Shea Alexander, who just celebrated his 20th birthday, happens to be my grandson.
Of course, that August became an adventure for everyone, who lived in the Okanagan.
As the fire blazed towards the Ol’ Homestead, we packed Molly The Cat in the back of the car and headed to Falkland to open the community church so church visitors and even locals could congregate. They did, but Molly, then a small one, had her own adventures; first disappearing over the bank from the then Pastor Hanik’s house in the dark and then finding the crawl space behind a microwave in the church kitchen. Later, we all bunked at friends in Westwold.
One of the most concerning times was at that church, when some “know-it-all” passed on the information that our homestead, etc. had gone up in flames. That caused great consternation as well as Excedrin Headache #763.
However, after returning to the Whispering Pines area, we found our two homes were still intact, although the flames had burned within 15 feet of both.
While 2003 were the ‘Weeks From Hell,’ I was holding my breath once again in August, 2006 when lightning started “smoke and fire” near Falkland. It was quickly doused.
With such threats still on the horizon this year that’s certainly enough reason to be praying for rain throughout all of August 2008.

Terror strikes at Jerusalem's influential 'heart'

WHEN BULLDOZER DRIVER Ghasan Abu-Tir crashed his heavy-equipment machinery into cars along Jerusalem’s King David Street on Tuesday it was another reminder of the continued terror war plaguing the Middle East.
However, for this former Middle East bureau chief it also gave me a sinking feeling and my first thought was “this maniac is hitting close to “home.”
Although my passport reads Canadian, after living in Jerusalem, the ancient city has become my adopted “home.” And, of course, I am not alone in that passion; thousands have felt the same way as I do.
It’s impossible to shake that emotion and it grows stronger remembering the numerous walks to the Western wall; the lengthy talks with long-time residents of the Old City; the outspoken politicians; and the almost daily lunches on the patio of the YMCA, across from the venerable King David Hotel.
And, of course, the peaceful atmosphere within the King David – an oasis for world political and business leaders in discussing issues through the decades. It also was a place for a reporter to learn a few – very few -- diplomatic “secrets.”
However, it all changed along that posh street of expensive art, jewelry and elegance Tuesday when Abu-Tir battered cars, including a Mercedes, a city bus and caused a reported 18 to 24 injuries.
Only three weeks ago a Palestinian man also boarded a heavy-equipment machine in another part of Jerusalem and before he was shot dead, three Israelis had been killed. A BBC correspondent apparently thought the operator was a disturbed individual without any political connections.
However, the latest incident in which Abu-Tir was killed by settler and IDF Company Commander (res.) Yaki Asael and Border Guard officer Amal Ganem, may have significant sinister overtones.
There have been numerous pieces to the puzzle. At the same time as Tuesday’s bulldozer incident, Israeli President Shimon Peres was meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at Peres’ Jerusalem residence. In addition, the incident occurred only seven hours prior to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama arriving at the King David as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.
And just who was most recent perpetrator?
At first, there were news reports identifying him as East Jerusalem resident Abu-Tir, a relative of Mohammed Abu-Tir, who has been in an Israeli jail from the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict. Then there was a news blackout, forcing the Israeli news outlets to identify Mohammed Abu-Tir as only a relative with an orange beard.
Of course, the bearded Abu-Tir could have influenced the 22-year-old “relative,” although the news outlets will probably be prevented to expand on that assumption in the coming days.
In April 2006, I detailed the dangers of such a villain, in this manner:
“Muhammed Abu-Tir looks like a buffoon. After all who would colour their beard bright orange?
Well, he did, and he’s proud of it, patterning himself after the prophet, Muhammed.
However, this No. 2 Hamas terrorist is no crazy loon even though he spent a quarter of a century in a cell and apparently once tried to poison Israel’s water supplies. Fortunately, he failed in the 1990s.
So why mention him?
Well, for the past few days, Abu-Tir has been heard on North American radio – 230 stations, which feature the outstanding host Rusty Humphries.
And what did Abu-Tir discuss?
He railed about Jews, who had converted to Christianity, in order to influence U.S. President George W. Bush.
“I made a study and I know very well all this radicalism in some parts of Christianity (including) the Anglicans, who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of the Zionists.”
This kind of rhetoric might fill air time, but it is scary, nevertheless.
And might be a foreboding of calamities to come, particularly when a terrorist has entered another realm – the religious one.
Will it be Christianity and Judaism vs. Islam?
After 9-11 and the destruction of the Twin Towers in Manhattan, North Americans have become extremely complacent as to the dangers posed by terrorists such as Abu-Tir.
This couldn’t happen again, could it?
However, after being based in Jerusalem, and seeing the atrocities that such warped individuals can design, it could and will happen again.
Now, such thinking as Abu-Tir has been spouting about leads me to believe the next target will not be the hi-rises of some American and Canadian city, but the obliteration of your local church or synagogue.
A nerve-jangling thought. But it could happen, for the Hamas, Al-Qaeda and their ilk know this is not about economics … It is a war to death between the Judeo-Christian faith and radical Muslims.
Despite the rhetoric of the politicians, it has always been about religion and Abu-Tir’s ridiculous claim that “U.S. churches are secretly run by Jews, who converted to Christianity” completely baffles me.”
Was Ghasan Abu-Tir’s bulldozer attack on an affluent Jerusalem area on Tuesday just a random act or did a orange-bearded Hamas leader influence his “relative” to become involved in such bizarre (and fatal) behaviour?