‘It’s been a brutal year’: Local cafe owner puts aside personal tragedy to feed firefighters

Cafe owner Steve Rice and his wife lost a daughter in the midst of the wildfires and extreme heat. Feeding first responders has kept him going.

The Packing House cafe owner Steve Rice, who has fed first responders nearly round-the-clock as British Columbia is wracked by wildfires. (Ashleigh Stewart)

It’s 6pm on a Monday evening, and the village of Spences Bridge is a ghost town – save for the constant rumbling of fire engines. The hills in every direction are cloaked with thick smoke. Seventy active fires are being fought in the area nearby.

With a population of just 140, Spences Bridge is by all accounts a tiny settlement. But located in the heart of Canada’s British Columbia on the Trans-Canada Highway, which cuts across the entire country, from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic Ocean to the east, it’s accustomed to the hubbub of tourists and commuters.

Not today; this is now the end of the line for the general public – the highway is closed southbound from here as a 7,000 hectare wildfire rages out of control.