Okanagan woman's belongings saved from 2023 wildfires headed to New York - Okanagan

For Heather MacKay, digging through the ashes of what was once her home in West Kelowna, British Columbia was emotional.

Her home was one of those destroyed by the McDougall Creek wildfire last summer.

“It was depressing,” MacKay told Global News. “I remember I could barely breathe because everything was just gone.”

Everything was lost except for a few small items that the hairdresser had been able to find and which she now holds dear.

“A couple of my seasonal salt and pepper shakers, and I saw a little peach cup sitting by the bathroom sink,” MacKay said.

Among the pile of rubble, MacKay also found a Christmas decoration.

“This one little gnome was in a snow globe. It looks like a charcoal briquette, but I kept it,” she said.

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Click to play video: 'Firefighters rebuild after McDougall Creek wildfire'

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Firefighters rebuild after McDougall Creek wildfire

The now-sentimental pieces are now en route to New York for a pop-up exhibition highlighting the human cost of climate-related events.

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“Who would have thought that someone you know in West Kelowna who owns four things from her past would keep those things in New York for the whole world to see,” MacKay said.

But that’s precisely the goal of Sierra Club Canada, the organization behind the exhibit that takes place during New York Climate Week, when heads of state from around the world, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also gather at the United Nations to address global challenges like wildfires and floods.

“We have ways to address climate change. The federal government has been promising for some time now to cap emissions from the oil and gas companies that we know are the lion’s share of emissions in Canada,” said Conor Curtis, chief communications officer for Sierra Club Canada. “And so we’re also calling on the government, as part of this exhibit, to announce and implement that cap as soon as possible.”