September 14, 2003

An open letter to the people of Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley:

On behalf of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and all who have worked on the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the people of Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley for your outstanding cooperation and generous support during the recent forest fire situation.

The overwhelming support during this time is not only very much appreciated, but has been tremendously uplifting during a very stressful and difficult time.  The endless donations, extreme patience, kind words of encouragement and all of the personal message signs posted throughout the area are truly motivating.  For this we are extremely grateful.

The resiliency of the Okanagan communities is reflected by all of the people that have gone out of their way to ensure that everyone remains safe, the needs of the community are met and the day to day fire operations continued uninterrupted.  You should be proud of your accomplishments, particularly your strong commitment to the community at large.

Again, a sincere heartfelt thank you from all of us that have worked on the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire.

 

Yours truly,

 

Brian Kempf

Incident Commander

Okanagan Mountain Park Fire