Construction on first post-wildfire home underway in Lytton

Work has started on the first build of a new home in Lytton since a devastating wildfire more than two years ago.

The concrete is now being poured after the first building permit for a new home was issued last month, according to Lytton Mayor Denise O'Connor.

She tweeted a photo of crews at the site, in which she added it will be the first of many to be rebuilt in the village.

Lytton was destroyed in a 2021 wildfire. It sparked amid a heat wave that shattered temperature records, and it razed the village quickly as residents fled their homes.

The long-delayed rebuild process has been blamed on hazardous soils after the fire and required archaeological work.

Roughly two-and-a-half years after the wildfire, the first home is being built.

In addition to the devastating fire, flooding the following November restricted access to the village on Highway 1.

A landslide took out a section of the road near Jackass Mountain, but a newly-installed bridge means two-way traffic can return to a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway north of the village.