Drivers trapped for 8 hours on Okanagan Connector blast BC for poor response

Imagine being trapped on a closed highway for eight hours with limited water, no food, and no toilets — and a toddler in the car.

That’s what happened to Vancouverite Lewis Krell and he’s blasting the poor communication from officials, absence of firefighting, and lack of provisions provided to drivers stuck on the Okanagan Connector last weekend while a logging truck burned.

The fire broke out around 5 pm, and while no one was injured, officials deemed it too dangerous to douse and left it to burn out on its own.

“It seemed like no one cared to do anything,” Krell said. “We have mechanisms to fight fires, there’s helicopters dropping water bombs [on wildfires] by the dozen every day. Yet somehow this logging truck they couldn’t do anything.”

He left Vancouver on Friday afternoon along with his wife and two-year-old daughter to visit family in West Kelowna. They thought they’d make good time, but instead they got caught behind the burning truck just before 5 pm.

“There was no signage or warnings put up for hours after it happened, so people were still joining the back of this insanely long line,” he said, estimating thousands of cars were trapped.

According to a spokesperson from BC’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, a truck hauling lumber caught fire that afternoon on Highway 97C near Brenda Mine Lake Road.

“Vehicle fires are dangerous to extinguish and in this case, the safest option available was to let the vehicle burn in place,” the ministry said.

Being stuck on the highway with a toddler and no supplies was stressful enough, but what made it worse was a lack of communication from officials — both on the ground and virtually, Krell said.

Cellular reception was poor along that stretch of highway, and Krell said he was one of only a handful of people with one bar of service.

He checked DriveBC on Twitter and only saw an update to “expect major delays” at 6 pm. Further tweets were issued at 6:40 pm, 8 pm, 11 pm, but they all said the same thing. No new information was given until after midnight when Drive BC said crews were working to reopen the highway.

CORRECTION🔺Due to a challenging and dangerous vehicle recovery caused by a major vehicle fire, #BCHwy97C remains closed eastbound approx. 10 km WEST of #Kelowna. Please use an alternate route and avoid the area. Crews are working to ensure the highway can safely reopen. #Merritt

— DriveBC (@DriveBC) August 20, 2022

What’s more, the Ministry of Transportation told Daily Hive that flaggers employed by the highway maintenance contractor were on-site with information and water for travellers. However, Krell said that wasn’t true.

“There’s literally thousands of witnesses to say that’s a lie.”

The drivers were stuck about 20 minutes away from West Kelowna. Krell questioned why supplies couldn’t be brought out — and why flaggers didn’t help the stuck drivers turn around and exit the highway.

“Is this truly how we handle things?” Krell asked. “I don’t expect the government to solve all my problems, but I do want you to clear the road and fight that fire.”

Water tanks took hours to show up

According to witnesses, there were efforts made to fight the fire at first. Krell said water tanks showed up, but then left and the fire restarted.

Photographer Ben Glassco also shared his experience sitting on the highway and the video amassed tens of thousands of views.

@ben.glassco

Kelowna throws the BEST BBQs 🍗

♬ Under the Sea (Instrumental) [From “The Little Mermaid”] – London Music Works

“People just got out of their cars and started walking their dogs and lurking instead of actually making safe choices,” wrote one Twitter user. “Should have had RCMP deployed to turn people back.”

“There is absolutely no traffic on the other side. You can divert the traffic there and use a single lane to cross the incident scene,” wrote another.

What do you mean “working” you guys didn’t even attempt at putting the fire out. You guys waited for it to go out by itself. You guys are probably waiting for the burnt truck to move by itself!!!

— karl hernandez (@karlhernandez7) August 20, 2022

Avoid the area? There are no signs, cones or anything alerting us of this and some of us were on the road when it happened and we can’t check our phones for updates. Thanks for this. Open the west bound lane and get us the hell out of here.

— Amanda Christmas (@lifebyxmas) August 20, 2022

Daily Hive reached out to the Ministry of Transportation with drivers’ concerns but has not yet back.

With files from Daily Hive’s Sarah Anderson