About this episode

This episode discusses the devastating wildfire that destroyed Lytton, British Columbia, and the ongoing recovery efforts.

Episode 426: On June 29th, 2021, Lytton, British Columbia, recorded the highest air temperature in Canadian history: 49.6 degrees Celsius. The next day, the town burned to the ground in under two hours, killing two people and destroying more than 150 homes and businesses across the Village of Lytton and the neighbouring Lytton First Nation reserves. Nearly four years later, the cause of the fire remains officially undetermined, the recovery has become its own bureaucratic disaster, and a class-action lawsuit against Canada's two largest railways is still working its way through the BC Supreme Court. This episode tells the story of the heat, the fire, the two people who didn't make it out, and the years-long collapse of the rebuild that followed. Later in the episode, Mike sits down with Tim Conrad of Butterfly Effect Communications to talk crisis communications — what the first hours of a disaster like Lytton demand, and what it takes to keep a fractured, grieving community informed years into a recovery that never seems to end. Sources: An Examination of the Lytton, British Columbia Wildland-Urban Fire Destruction Provincial Support for the Village of Lytton's Wildfire Recovery…

People in this episode

Host: Mike

Guest: Tim Conrad

Topics covered

• wildfire
• disaster recovery
• crisis communications
• true crime
• community impact

Keywords

• Lytton
• wildfire
• British Columbia
• crisis communications
• disaster recovery
• class-action lawsuit
• heat wave
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Lytton, British Columbia

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