A photographer captured a stunning image of the northern lights as a wildfire burned near her home in McBride.
On Saturday, May 6, Mandi Kjos was on evacuation alert because of the Teare Creek wildfire burning just four kilometres east of McBride.
“After work I rushed home and started packing up my family of five and getting ready to leave and going out and checking the fire to see how close it was,” said Kjos.
She said around 11 p.m. she went down to the river to check on the fire and noticed a faint green haze in the sky.
“All you saw is the smoke, you could barely breathe, your eyes were burning. Physically burning,” said Kjos.
“Everyone was wearing masks on their faces because you couldn’t breathe and just to see that little bit of green. I was like — it looks like the northern lights, but wasn’t sure until I took the photo.”
Kjos said she has UV lighting on her camera that was able to see through the smoke and capture the northern lights illuminating the sky while the fire burned.
“When you see that picture basically there’s so much devastation, but it was like mother nature gave you this hope and beauty out of it.”
High on-site winds Friday afternoon resulted in an increase in fire activity, which was also burning in steep challenging terrain.
“It was a very scary thing because it happened so fast,” said Kjos.
“All of a sudden it just warmed because the winds. It was hot and extremely windy. It just pushed right across our mountains, and it was jumping. To the point where at like 11 or 12 p.m. I was able to sit in my backyard and literally watch my mountain burn.”
Kjos said seeing the northern lights when it was so chaotic brought a sense of hope and relief.
“So, you see the northern lights and that’s a beauty and a hope, right? And it then it poured for two days straight. Plus, we had the water bombers working constantly. They were even working while it was raining, and they finally go it under control.”
When Kjos shared the photo to social media it was met with an immediate positive reaction. Kjos said she was even stopped by a lab tech at a recent medical appointment who shared how much the photo meant to her.
“When she saw my photo, it physically made her cry because she's like, she just said 'Mandi, I really needed to see that photo. That photo gave me hope that something was better was coming,'” said Kjos.
“So that made me feel very good.”
