About three hours later, a big fire Tore apart the village And destroyed most of it. Two people were killed in the fire and many others were injured.

“I’m glad I went there, but now I think it’s too tragic,” she said.

Mussallem could have taken the Coquihalla highway to reach Williams Lake. Although this would shorten her travel time by about an hour, she felt that she would miss all the unique attractions that the small town of Fraser Canyon has to offer.

For about half an hour, she walked around, capturing Litton’s buildings, the Totem Motel, the local swimming pool, and the tourist office. She also caught the smoky sky over the small town from a nearby wildfire-as it turns out, Does not seem to be the cause of the fire Later occupied the streets.

Mussallem didn’t stay long because Depressive, record-breaking high temperatures that lasted for several daysLater that night, she discovered that the town had been destroyed by fire.

As the Litton people began to recover from the devastating losses of their homes and local businesses, some people began to look forward to how the village would be rebuilt. Many people point out that Lytton’s historical and geographical significance is an inevitable sign of revival.

Bernie Fandrich, chairman of the local chamber of commerce, believes that Lytton’s life is still very long.

“Some of us are working hard to make plans for the future,” he said by phone on the way back to his home in the suburb of Litton on Thursday.

“I think what will happen next is that we will become a model community in North America.”

‘An important crossroad’

Barbara Rodden, the mayor of nearby Ashcroft town and editor of Ashcroft’s Cache Creek magazine, said Lytton is one of the oldest inhabited communities in the province.

Approximately 250 people live in Lytton, but there are more than 1,500 residents in the surrounding area.

It is located at the confluence of two waterways (the Fraser River and the Thompson River) and sits between three mountains, making it a natural meeting point for the Nlaka’pamux aboriginals in the area for thousands of years.

“Litton is the center of the Aboriginal area,” Rodden said. “For the indigenous people, this is an important crossroads, and for the white settlers who began to arrive in the early 19th century, it is another important crossroads.”

Rodden said that when gold was first discovered in 1858, gold prospectors flocked to it. People are looking for supplies in the small towns along the Fraser Canyon, and Lytton is the center of this activity.

Rodden said that Lytton was severely damaged by wildfires in 1931, 1938, and 1949, but was rebuilt every time.

Later, as the gold rush subsided, cars overtook horses to become the most popular way to travel, Fraser Canyon was famous for its spectacular lanes, and tourism became a major feature of the local economy.

Roden grew up in Richmond, Metro Vancouver, and as a child would travel along Fraser Canyon to her cottage in Ashcroft. She said that during that time she saw a lot of changes in the area, the most notable being the completion of the Coquihalla Highway in 1986.

The newly built highway provides a faster access to the interior from the Lower Mainland. It also wiped out most of the tourism industry along the Fraser Canyon.

“Almost overnight, passenger traffic on the Fraser Canyon route disappeared,” she said.

“All these once prosperous towns have declined because there is not enough traffic to sustain the development of many businesses.”

Fandrich, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, said that the area has always been a destination for outdoor sports enthusiasts and has been known as the whitewater rafting capital of Canada for a period of time.

In recent years, Lytton has attracted people like Mussallem who are eager to get off the beaten track and admire the town’s picturesque background.

“People like to come here,” Van Derich said. “They can’t believe how friendly it is. People smile at you and wave to you, they don’t even recognize you.”

Fandrich believes that the same characteristics that make Lytton call itself a “hot spot in Canada” can also make it a model community for the future.

He believes that officials can find a way to use this heat and convert it into energy. Fandrich admits that he does lack details on how to achieve this goal, but he believes that the people at Lytton will find a way forward.

“The will is there,” he said. “I am very optimistic about the future.”

Anyone who receives an evacuation order must leave the area immediately.

Evacuation centers have been set up throughout the province to help anyone evacuating from communities threatened by wildfires.To find the center closest to you, please visit Emergency Management in British Columbia website.

Encourage evacuees to Emergency Support Service Online, regardless of whether they receive services in an evacuation center or not.

The BC Emergency Management Department requires those who know that they may have been in Lytton on June 30, 2021 but whose whereabouts are unknown, please call or join any RCMP unit to report the person’s disappearance.