Five Years After the Heat Dome: Survivors' Stories

Five years after the 2021 western North America heat wave killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes, The Tyee is presenting the stories of five survivors as told in their own words. Their testimonies, created with the Climate Disaster Project at the University of Victoria, offer more than memorialization—they serve as early warning systems and emergency preparedness plans for the extreme events that have now become seasonal.

Jen Hatton was born in B.C.'s Interior and raised in Surrey by her mom. She found a love of the outdoors and played band in high school, before studying history at Simon Fraser University and meeting her husband Greg. After he bought her a book on their first date, she knew he was a keeper. They married in 2012 and seven years later moved to Delta. In 2021, B.C.'s extreme heat wave arrived five months after the birth of her youngest son, Leif, brother to three-year-old Eleanor and five-year-old Daniel.

"In the news, there was this weird high-pressure system," Hatton recalls. "They were forecasting 40 C. I've never seen heat like that here. I was born in the Interior, so I've seen 40 C in the summer easily, but not the coast. CBC kept reiterating, 'This is not going to blow away, this is actually going to happen.' When your life as an animal changes, it throws you. There's no plan of attack. It's coming. This is real."

The family didn't have many options, so they stayed put, unsure how long the heat would last. "We have food, water, electricity, fans and all that stuff. How long can we hold out? How long can we last like this before we go nuts?"

It was unlike anything they'd experienced. "Any time you went outside, it just smelled hot. The resin coming out of the trees, the parched grass and baked dirt. Sun-baked trees, hot dust from where the dirt's all dried out, and you can almost smell that the plants are struggling. You hear the odd car drive by, but not the nature. The birds, they're not out. Not even the bugs are…"

Over the next 10 days, The Tyee will share testimonies from four other survivors: a Vancouver homeowner who had to find a new home when her condo turned into a greenhouse; a Lower Mainland firefighter who answered emergency calls as extreme heat buckled the province's health-care system; a retired school principal forced to evacuate when heat turned to flame in Lytton; and a Kamloops councillor who watched fire scorch one of the city's outer neighbourhoods.

"The survivors of past climate disasters carry with them knowledge and wisdom needed to help us confront the extreme events that have now become seasonal," said Sean Holman of the Climate Disaster Project. "Reading their testimonies now isn't just about memorialization. It's about preparation. An opportunity to change what will happen today and tomorrow."