Van Angeren’s mother, Lynne Sha, and neighbour, Kathy Roberts, serving chilli to people who helped fight the wildfire. — Nasuna Stuart-Ulin/The New York Times
SMOKE was darkening the skies, and flames from an out-of-control wildfire ripping through this remote stretch of western Canada were creeping ominously close to the farm that has been in Jake van Angeren’s family for 70 years.
Official evacuation alerts had sounded in Goodlow, an agricultural community near Alberta in northeastern British Columbia, setting off a chain reaction among families who had packed their bags ready to be ordered to leave as wildfires last month swallowed up swaths of land.
