Nick Stanger and Jennifer Good: A love letter to a community on fire

This summer’s fire season started early in B.C., and as hundreds of wildfires continue to blaze, now Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario are also experiencing widespread fires. The fires are responsible for the charred remains of hundreds of thousands of hectares, as well as widespread fear and community devastation. But it is Lytton that has become emblematic of the fires’ horrors and terrible inequity.

Within days of each other, Lytton recorded the highest-ever Canadian temperature, 49.5 degrees C, and then was devastated by a forest fire that swept through the community, killing two people and destroying 90 per cent of the town. From far away, we have watched the climate nightmare unfolding, and our hearts are heavy thinking about our friends fleeing the fire with little to no warning, and very little support.