Canada: Gaudiuso Said She Hasn't Received Official Confirmation But the Photo Left Her Certain Her Home Is Gone

Kyla Gaudiuso learned her home in Faulder, B.C., was destroyed when she received a photo of the ridge where it once stood, engulfed in flames. The community west of Summerland was among the first areas overrun by the Bald Range wildfire, which has claimed one life and forced more than 20,000 residents around Okanagan Lake to flee. RCMP say an 80-year-old woman died over the weekend while trying to escape her home in Meadow Valley, west of Summerland.

The British Columbia government declared a provincial state of emergency on Saturday, saying property losses are significant though details are scant. Gaudiuso said she hasn't received official confirmation but the photo left her certain her home is gone. It's among dozens of properties in Faulder thought to have been consumed by flames, with video showing the village of about 215 residents reduced to smouldering ruins.

She described the evacuation as "pandemonium, and said she is staying at a friend's house in Penticton, hoping the blaze is contained soon so she can see the destruction for herself. "I have to see it to believe it, she said. The BC Wildfire Service says the fire spans about 136 square kilometres and burns out of control on the outskirts of Summerland, a community of 12,000 under evacuation order.

About 10,000 homes are under evacuation order in Summerland, Peachland, the regional districts of Okanagan-Similkameen and Central Okanagan, and on Penticton Indian Band lands. More than 3,200 homes are under lower-level evacuation alerts stretching north past Peachland to Highway 97C and south past Penticton along the city's western outskirts.