Lightning Rock Winery, Summerland, British Columbia

On Friday, August 7^th, Ron Kubek, owner and CEO of Lightning Rock Winery in Summerland, British Columbia went out to dinner with his family at 6:30 p.m. At that point, the Bald Range Fire was just over 120 acres. By the time they finished dinner at 8 p.m., Kubek says it was nearly 2,500 acres. By 9:30 p.m., it was over 12,000 acres.

“We started preparing go bags just in case,” Kubek says. “We started figuring out what we were going to do with staff and with some of our foreign workers.” The winery’s interns left at approximately 10 p.m. The winemaker’s partner and their young children also evacuated.

About 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Kubek heard emergency sirens.

“I didn’t even know Summerland had permanent sirens,” Kubek says. “It blew me away.” Kubek also received an alert on his phone to evacuate.

The Kubeks live on the Lightning Rock property. Kubek and his wife, Tracy, packed up their cars, and then he started watering the property down with a large firehose.

“Then the power goes out, and I’m like, ‘Okay, God, I got the hint,’” Kubek says.

By this point, traffic from Summerland to Penticton was bumper-to-bumper. Instead, the Kubeks took a forest service road, leaving in two separate cars.

“There was a sense of calm,” Kubek says. “It was like, okay, my staff is safe. My family’s safe.” The couple drove to their condominium several hours away.

Ron and Tracy Kubek, Lightning Rock Winery

Sunday morning, the Kubeks learned that the Lightning Rock buildings and their home appear to have been spared. Since evacuating, Kubek has talked with his staff, insurance agents, local officials, and news media. He has spent time cancelling reservations, tours, events, and bottling.

The Lightning Rock tasting room is currently shut down for an unknown period. This halts sales during what is typically the busiest time of the year.

“We’ve sent emails off to our agents saying ‘Sell like crazy!’” Kubek says.

Lightning Rock had already been impacted by freeze events that limited their crop in 2023 and 2024. The winery replanted some vines two years ago. It’s unclear if those vines will survive. It seems certain that Lightning Rock will not be able to harvest fruit from its vineyard in 2026.

“We survived ‘23. ’24 we’re trying to survive. ’26 is going to be hard to survive because we’ve got no fruit,” Kubek says.

Since the fire started, Lightning Rock’s hospitality manager, Harpreet Sidhu, who is also president of the Rotary Club of Penticton, has volunteered 12+ hours a day to support people displaced by the fire. Vineyard manager and winemaker Sébastien Hotte has been working to ensure the safety of the winery’s temporary foreign workers and workers at neighboring wineries and farms.

“Both of them have had their own lives disrupted, and they’re spending their time looking after other people,” Kubek says. “I’m really proud of my staff.”

Kubek, meanwhile, is thinking about what comes next.

“My heart goes out to the people who lost their houses,” he says. “I’m telling everybody to support Summerland, all the different businesses.

“At the same time, it’s not just Summerland. It’s not just the wineries, not just their employees. It’s the growers and their employees. It’s the suppliers to the growers and to the wineries. A lot of people and businesses have been impacted.”

Yesterday afternoon, additional evacuation alerts were issued.

Images courtesy of Lightning Rock Winery. 

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