This photograph of a house near Oliver being surrounded by flames during last August’s wildfires captured third place for Best Spot News Photo at the 2016 Canadian Community Newspaper Association national awards. Osoyoos Times editor Keith Lacey and McGuire shared the award for Best Feature Article (circulation under 25,000) at the 2016 provincial Ma Murray Newspaper Awards, which were handed out this past Saturday at River Rock Casino in Richmond. (Richard McGuire photo)
We did it again.
The Osoyoos Times has continued its recent tradition of winning major community newspaper awards as the editorial team of editor Keith Lacey and reporter-photographer Richard McGuire teamed up to win the Best Feature Article (25,000 circulation and under) at the 2016 Ma Murray Newspaper Awards competition.
The Osoyoos Times submitted several articles from the same Aug. 19, 2015 edition related to the outbreak of several large wildfires that broke out in and around Oliver and Osoyoos following an extended drought.
Last year, the Osoyoos Times was named as the top newspaper in its circulation class in all of Canada as part of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association (CCNA) awards competition.
Back in 2014, the Osoyoos Times was named the winner of the General Excellence Award in its circulation class at the Ma Murray provincial newspaper awards competition.
McGuire also recently had one of his photos taken during last year’s wildfires win third place for Best Spot News Photo at the 2016 CCNA awards competition.
On Saturday at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, Lacey, Aberdeen Publishing managing director Linda Bolton and Lyonel Doherty, the editor of the Oliver Chronicle, attended the 2016 Ma Murray Newspaper Awards.
Doherty was thrilled when it was announced that the Oliver Chronicle was named the best newspaper, General Excellence, in its circulation category (1,500 to 1,999) in all of British Columbia.
A photograph Doherty took of emergency services personnel attempting to rescue a young man who had fallen through the ice on Tuc El Nuit Lake this past winter captured third place in the Best Spot News Photo competition.
McGuire worked tirelessly over several days once the wildfires raged in every direction near Oliver and Osoyoos in mid-August last summer.
“There had already been fires starting in previous days both at Rock Creek and to the east of Osoyoos at Sidley Mountain, a fire that crossed into Canada from Washington State, where there were a number of fires burning,” said McGuire. “Around dinner time on Friday, August 14, I answered a phone call from a friend who was driving north on Highway 97 from Osoyoos and she said a number of fires had broken out along the highway between Osoyoos and Oliver and north of Oliver. I got into my car and drove up to investigate.”
When he got up past Road 22, McGuire said he could see fire burning down the side of Mount Kobau.
“Strong winds were picking up and pounding down the side of the mountain so that when I stepped out of my car, I actually had to hold onto the car to keep from falling,” he said. “I saw burning brush blowing through the air, igniting brush on the ground where it landed. Within minutes, what started as a small spark grew to a new fire stretching kilometres over the hill parallel to the highway.”
As this was a Friday and the next edition of the newspaper didn’t come out until the following Wednesday, McGuire then switched into online reporting mode.
“The priority was to get information out to the public from authorities and to ensure that rumours and misinformation circling on social media was corrected and addressed,” he said. “Social media responds very quickly in a situation like this, but unfortunately most of the people posting are not journalists and information is often unsubstantiated. Our website and Facebook page went through several dozen revisions over the course of the weekend as new information about road closures, evacuations, damage and locations and size of the fire became available. It was a constantly moving target to report on it.”
That evening between about 9 and 11 p.m. McGuire took another drive up Highway 97 and the situation was now dire as the fire at Testalinden Creek was rapidly burning down the mountain and was getting very close to houses, wineries, farms and other businesses.
“People were wetting down buildings and many people were evacuating,” said McGuire. “Our cover photo showed people evacuating one large home as the fire rapidly approached in the background.
“Emergency vehicles raced back and forth as firefighters tried to save buildings and police tried to ensure that everyone evacuated safely.”
One of the challenges in this type of situation is to gather photos that tell the story without getting in the way of emergency responders or putting myself or anyone else in danger, said McGuire.
The rest of the weekend was spent monitoring the fire fighting efforts, attending news conferences, interviewing people and continually posting to our website and social media, said McGuire.
Ironically, McGuire’s other Ma Murray Award was also wildfire related.
“I won Best Spot News Photo for a photo of a 2013 wildfire showing a bomber dropping fire retardant on a blaze just west of Osoyoos at Spotted Lake,” he said.
McGuire said he hopes this summer sees fewer wildfires. “I’m really not that desperate to win another award by repeating this horror,” he said.
Bob Doull, the president of Aberdeen Publishing, which owns the Osoyoos Times and Oliver Chronicle, said he’s thrilled with the continued good work being done at both newspapers.
“I am fortunate to be associated with a group of such talented people who are unstinting in their efforts to serve their communities,” he said. “We all benefit from their exceptional work and their desire to give us excellent newspapers.”
Bolton said she is so proud to work with dedicated professionals at both newspapers.
I am extremely proud of both the newspapers and their teams that come to work every day and put in more than expected day in day out,” she said. “Special acknowledgement goes out to the editorial people who earned these awards. A huge thanks goes to Lyonel Doherty, who is so devoted as an editor to the industry and such a humble, community minded and caring man.”
Lacey and McGuire both share the ability to capture the heart of a story and are committed to working long hours taking photographs, looking for angles to good stories and being on the job whenever needed, said Bolton.
McGuire is a journalist who remains devoted to the trade and produces story after story with depth and thought provoking and colourful photos, she said.
Lacey’s acceptance speech Saturday night spoke of how much McGuire puts himself into the coverage and how everyone at the newspaper appreciates the work that he does.
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Osoyoos Times
