Temporary migrant workers braved smoke to send money home. Then a B.C. wildfire took their jobs

Smoke has been an increasingly familiar backdrop during Julio’s summers in the Okanagan, hanging over the rows of cherry trees as he and other temporary foreign workers race against the clock to bring in B.C.’s fruit harvest.

Some days, it’s only a light haze. On others, the smoke is so thick it has brought work to a choking halt.

“Usually, we just use an N95 mask and carry on because we want to make the most of our time,” he said.

But this week, the apartment Julio shared with his wife was among several homes for migrant workers destroyed by the Bald Range wildfire , which forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate Summerland, Peachland and surrounding communities.

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“There was no frame left over from our house, nothing,” Julio said, describing a video he was shown of the wildfire’s aftermath.

He is one of nearly 100 temporary foreign agricultural workers from Mexico displaced by the wildfire, with some losing their jobs as crops burned and farms and worker housing were damaged. Now scattered across the Okanagan, many are facing lost income and an uncertain return home — a crisis advocates say is exposing gaps in emergency support for workers whose B.C. wages support families thousands of kilometres away.

Postmedia agreed not to publish the full identities of the workers who fear speaking publicly could affect their employment or status in Canada.

Julio is among 47 seasonal workers from a Summerland cherry farm who were forced to flee, with about 30 flown out by helicopter.

“It was super scary,” said Julio, who left the fire zone in a work van with few belongings, driving through the night as an orange glow from the flames lit the road ahead.

After sleeping on cots at an ice rink turned into an emergency shelter in West Kelowna, they were told the support was temporary and they could no longer stay.