‘It’s been a brutal year’: Local cafe owner puts aside personal tragedy to feed firefighters
Cafe owner Steve Rice and his wife lost a daughter in the midst of the wildfires and extreme heat. Feeding first responders has kept him going.
It’s 6pm on a Monday evening, and the village of Spences Bridge is a ghost town – save for the constant rumbling of fire engines. The hills in every direction are cloaked with thick smoke. Seventy active fires are being fought in the area nearby.
With a population of just 140, Spences Bridge is by all accounts a tiny settlement. But located in the heart of Canada’s British Columbia on the Trans-Canada Highway, which cuts across the entire country, from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic Ocean to the east, it’s accustomed to the hubbub of tourists and commuters.
Not today; this is now the end of the line for the general public – the highway is closed southbound from here as a 7,000 hectare wildfire rages out of control.
The smouldering remains of the town of Lytton, which was nearly wiped out by a fire on Wednesday, just days after it broke the record for Canada’s all-time highest temperature for three days in a row, reaching 121.1F (49.5C), sit 35 kilometres south from here. There are now 214 active fires raging in British Columbia .
But one hub of activity remains in Spences Bridge. It emanates from the only cafe in town, which shut its doors on Saturday to the general public in order to focus on feeding firefighters and emergency responders working in the area.
Fire engines pull up to The Packing House cafe throughout the day, with tired crews stumbling through the doors in search of a hearty meal before they head out on the night shift, or before they retire to the tent they’re staying in at the local campground.
And, despite the circumstances, it’s become a lifeline for many – and not just the firefighters.
“We’re really going to miss coming here every day,” one BC Wildfire firefighter says, bidding farewell to cafe owner Steve Rice. The crew is moving on to Boston Bar, south of Lytton, after two weeks in Spences Bridge. “This is the only thing that’s kept us going.”
Mr Rice is apologetic; he’s sorry they haven’t been able to put on a live music night for them.
Mr Rice is something of a well-known personality around these parts. As well as owning and operating The Packing House with his wife Paulet, he’s a farmer and the area director for the Thompson Nicola Regional District. He also sits on a number of advisory boards.
He’s affable and boisterous, wearing a fluorescent, tie-dyed t-shirt as he wanders through the cafe, greeting exhausted firefighters, trying to lift spirits. But his geniality belies a heavy emotional weight he carries.
Just five days ago, in the midst of the Lytton fire, the Rices lost their 35-year-old daughter, one of their five children. She had been struggling with addiction issues for years, Mr Rice says, but had seemed to be “coming out of it”. Two weeks earlier, the family believed she had been on the mend. He hasn’t had time to deal with his grief yet.
“I do think God was looking out for us. Because if I didn’t have this to focus on, we would’ve fallen apart,” he says.
“So it’s been tough, really tough. I didn’t know it could hurt so bad. So I’m going to get through this. And then I’m going to fall apart.”
It has not been an easy few weeks for Mr Rice. His mother, who lives in an aged care home in Lillooet, was evacuated to Kamloops during the fires. His entire fruit and vegetable crop was destroyed by last week’s extreme heat, and he had no insurance.
“I farmed 33 years and this has never happened to me. It’s been a brutal year.”
Nonetheless, Mr Rice decided to close the cafe on Saturday afternoon, and with the help of the local community, gathered volunteers to cook and clean for the crews from 5am until sometimes the early hours of the morning. About half-a-dozen local women volunteer in the cafe, with an average age of about 65, Mr Rice says.
“We didn’t know what we were getting into, for sure. Because it is exhausting. And you’ve got to be right on top of things,” he says.
“This is what these women do in rural communities. Do you know how much they’re enjoying this? I mean, they’re tired, but they are just fired up.”
Aside from one $1,600 grocery shop conducted at the very start, all the food has been donated. Local communities have brought in goods, while businesses such as Costco and Walmart have gifted supplies. The donations are now coming in so thick and fast they can’t find places to store it all.
They’ve stashed things in coolers all over town, with dry goods going to the community hall.
“Our new fire chief is Sikh, and the Sikh Motorcycle Club drove a truck up here yesterday, a huge one, and it was full of supplies. We had so many volunteers out here offloading all the stuff, calling in favours with people to store stuff in their coolers,” Mr Rice said.
He says the decision to close to the public was a “no-brainer”. He is in talks with the provincial government to ensure they, and their volunteers, are compensated, but the cafe is opening its doors to other helpers in the region, and Mr Rice he doesn’t think he’ll be able to all the costs. He doesn’t care, acknowledging that now isn’t the time to count pennies.
“I can’t imagine being one of those first responders in this area – every person is your friend, your family or someone you know,” he says.
“Everyone in Lytton knows everyone in Spences Bridge. And vice versa.”
Tuesday will be the last day of the emergency services operation at The Packing House. They’re going to take a couple of days to debrief and reopen for a community “pub night” on Friday. Meanwhile, Mr Rice and his wife, who is also the town’s postmaster, will take some time to allow themselves to “fall apart”.
They put the Packing House on the market a few weeks before the fires, to allow themselves to free up some time for their nine grandchildren. Mr Rice is currently trying to decide if he seeks a fourth term as area director, or if they will go travelling around the country for a while.
“If we get $450,000 for the whole operation, we’ll be fortunate. We don’t have a savings account, this is it, so we’ll put it in the bank account, pay off all our bills and we might still have $12 to our name. But that’s OK, we’ll stop and pick cherries along the way.”
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