B.C. wildfire survivors include pet salamander and tarantula

When Amanda Roberts and her 10-year-old son River fled the Bald Range fire before it wiped out the community of Faulder, B.C., they had to leave behind some of their beloved pets, including a tarantula named Velky Pavouk and Mongo the salamander.

The critters were in two terrariums they left behind in a vehicle they abandoned, such was the urgency to get out.

Roberts says their largest terrarium couldn’t even be moved and pet ball python inside didn’t survive the fire when it destroyed the home.

But while the home was destroyed, Roberts says Mongo and Velky Pavouk — whose name means “big spider” in Czech — somehow survived for five days in the abandoned vehicle and were rescued by “an amazing RCMP officer.”

They’re some of the lucky ones among the pet survivors of the Bald Range fire, many of whom are still waiting to be reunited with worried owners.

Dozens of posts on social media feature photos of missing cats, dogs and even chickens, while others show singed pets rescued from the fire zone.

Roberts said River has now been reunited with Mongo and Velky Pavouk, calling it a miracle the creatures survived the fire that destroyed or damaged 150 structures in Summerland and outlying areas including Faulder.

She says some neighbours’ pets got loose or were set free during the frantic evacuation of Faulder on Aug. 7, and some people who stayed behind have been putting out food and treats “in hopes of corralling in the missing animals.”

In the case of Mongo the salamander, their survival is in keeping the creatures’ mythical attribute of being able to live in fire.

Roberts said she moved to Faulder 10 years ago when River was a baby, and the community has been a “safe refuge for us.”

“We’ve been there ever since building a life. I wanted to offer my boy stability,” she said.

She said her landlord “took a chance” on renting to her a decade ago. She says they are “more like family and I feel that about a lot of folks in Faulder. It’s a small community.”

Roberts said River went through a herpetology phase that saw him build terrariums, and they kept a veritable zoo. She said that when they fled the fire, they got out with their dog, their landlord’s dog, one of their cats and their crested gecko, Kanika.

But Roberts says that River is devastated by the loss of his cat Sally-Mae, who is missing, along with another cat named Haiku and guinea pigs that they kept in a free-roaming containment apparatus in front of their home.

She said being uprooted by the fire has “disjointed” her thinking, though she’s grateful to have a place in Penticton to stay in the meantime.

“One day I’m sobbing, saying I’m just going to leave the country. And then another day I am feeling a little more like, oh, I should return to work and if I live in a tent, so be it,” she said.

She said it’s been “beautiful” to see the outpouring of support for evacuees and those displaced by the fire, admiring those with the tenacity to want to rebuild while dealing with the “reality that that takes time, a significant amount of time.”

“So what does it look like in the interim for all of us? It’s just very uncertain,” she said. “I don’t know where life will take us. It’s a very strange thing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2026