Cliff and Sharon Farncombe had an adventuresome escape from the wildfire that burned down the historic Lee’s Corner store and restaurant at Riske Creek July 7.
Cliff had been working as the watchman at a logging camp at Big Creek when the evacuation order came down.
The couple set out for Kamloops via the back roads to Gang Ranch loaded down with 600 pounds of frozen beef that the cook didn’t want to spoil and ruin the camp freezer.
They expected to be in Kamloops by midnight but fate had other plans for the couple.
“We fell into a sink hole between the Gang Ranch and Canoe Creek,” Cliff said. “It was 12 hours before anybody came by and 17 hours before we got to Kamloops.”
He said the sink hole was right on the road and swallowed their right front tire up to the running board.
They slept in their car and were eventually thankful to be pulled out the next day by two young men from Canoe Creek. They would like to thank them but only caught the name Duncan.
With the risk that their cargo would thaw before reaching Kamloops they dropped the beef off at the Lone Butte Community Hall to help feed firefighters working in that area.
“It was a good feeling to be able to give it to them,” Sharon said.
“And good quality beef too,” added Cliff.
The couple, who are both 77 years old, and make their home in Williams Lake when they are not travelling, had no intention of being separated when there were wildfire alerts and evacuations happening around Williams Lake in July, which is why Sharon decided to go with Cliff to the logging camp.
“He was the camp watchman and I was his buddy,” Sharon said. “I wouldn’t stay at home alone because of the fires.
I was so worried about him. We didn’t want to be apart when there was a danger of fire.”
Upon their return to Williams Lake last week the couple helped out at the donation centre set up in the former Lake City Ford building to warehouse and distribute the large flow of donated food and supplies that came into the city after the evacuation order for Williams Lake was lifted.
Cliff helped to unload delivery trucks and move items around the warehouse. Sharon is legally blind so her job was making up the double bags that were being packed with enough non-perishable food to keep two people for two days.
“It’s been fun,” Sharon said.
“They even gave us a lunch.”
Cliff worked as a cowboy on ranches in the Cariboo Chilcotin for about 50 years until retiring to lighter farm and care-taking work a few years ago.
The couple left the Cariboo Chilcotin for a few years to travel and work on farms around Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Sharon was raised on a farm near Hines Creek in northern Alberta and Cliff was raised on his family’s farm near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. After considering retiring to Vancouver where Sharon’s son lives the couple decided to return to the Cariboo and make Williams Lake their home.
“We felt it was time to go home,” Sharon said. “This is our home.”
Cliff said he couldn’t live in the “concrete jungle.”
“I tried city life years ago in the early 1960s,” Cliff said. “I found I was a nervous wreck by the time I got out of there.”
Cliff started his cowboy life at age 16 working on farms and ranches in Saskatchewan eventually migrating to the big ranches of the Cariboo Chilcotin.
“I think I told my dad when I was about five years old that I wanted to be a cowboy,” Cliff said.
Through the early spring this year Cliff and Sharon had been camping between Williams Lake and Bella Coola and delivering Gideon Bibles to anyone along the way who would take one.
“We felt that is what we were supposed to do,” Sharon said. “Somewhere along the way someone will read them and know God loves them.”