Ralph Smith was just getting ready to settle in for a nap one day last summer when a wildfire suddenly ignited near his home in Lake Country, B.C.

His home and seven others were quickly swept up in the flames and destroyed, but Smith is acutely aware of how much worse things could have been.

"Another half an hour, and I would have been down and out — I never would have known it was coming," he told CBC.

Soon after that disastrous July day, Smith and the other homeowners learned that investigators believed the fire had been set deliberately.

And then this week, there was more unsettling news — police had connected the Lake Country wildfire to 28 other Okanagan arson cases dating back to 2014. The RCMP have set up a task force to track down the person or people responsible.

"I just hope they catch the guy and string him up. Whoever's done this has ruined so many lives," Smith said.

One of eight homes that burned in a wildfire in Lake Country on July 15, 2017. (Brady Strachan/CBC)

Mounties aren't revealing how they drew connections between the 29 fires, except to say that investigators have found similarities in all of them.

"Thankfully, no one was injured or killed, but there's always the potential for loss of life," Staff Sgt. Annie Linteau told CBC.

The fires were set in Naramata, Okanagan Falls, Osoyoos, Oliver, Penticton, Summerland and Lake Country — mostly in the interface areas where wilderness meets human habitation.

Firefighters in the Okanagan have been aware of an issue with wildland arson for some time, according to Lake Country Fire Chief Steve Windsor.

"We were actually prepped by the RCMP quite a ways prior to our [2017] fire to look out for certain indicators," he said.

Investigators believe that whoever is responsible is looking for a particular set of conditions before setting the fires, according to Windsor.

"We think that the individual looks at an area and then he looks at potentially the weather forecast. In our particular case, it was a combination of the weather factors and the topography that created such an inferno and took off so quickly," he said.

Police believe last year's destructive wildfire in Lake Country was caused by an arsonist or arsonists. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout/West Kelowna Fire)

The consequences of those fires have been huge for people like Smith and his wife. They lost more than just a home — their in-house bed and breakfast was also destroyed.

Nearly a year later, Smith says they're done with the hospitality business. They've taken a buyout from their insurance company and bought a piece of property on Vancouver Island.

"We're going to rebuild there, some place that's a lot quieter," Smith said.

Map of suspicious wildfires

The Intentionally Set Wildfires Task Force asks anyone who has any information about any of the 29 wildfires to contact the designated tip line at 1-855-685-8788 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. (RCMP)

The 29 wildfires include, in part, the following:

July 7, 2014, K50209, Naramata

July 7, 2014, White Lake Road, Penticton

July 9, 2014, Richter Pass, Osoyoos

July 15, 2014, Mt. Kobau, Oliver

July 15, 2014, Apex Road, Penticton

July 17, 2014, Reservoir Road / Landfill Road, Penticton

July 22, 2014, White Lake Road, Okanagan Falls

Aug. 11, 2014, Chute Lake Road, Naramata

Aug. 11, 2014, Green Mountain Road, Penticton

Aug. 13, 2014, White Lake Road, Penticton

Aug. 19, 2014, North Naramata Road, Naramata

Sept. 15, 2014, Green Mountain Road, Penticton

July 2, 2015, Canyon View Road, Summerland

Aug. 7, 2015, Pampas Grass Way, Oliver

Aug. 8, 2015, Spiller Road, Penticton

Aug. 11, 2015, Commonage Road, Lake Country

Aug. 11, 2015, Beaver Lake Road, Lake Country

Aug. 12, 2015, Gulch Road, Naramata

Aug. 14, 2015, White Lake Road, Penticton

April 9, 2016, Fairview-Cawston Road, Cawston

Aug. 17, 2016, Commonage Road, Lake Country

Aug. 17, 2016, Oyama Road, Lake Country

July 3, 2017, Pixie Beach, Lake Country

July 15, 2017, Okanagan Centre RoadW, Lake Country

Sept. 1, 2017, Westhills Road, Penticton

Sept. 1, 2017, Old Princeton Hwy, Summerland

Anyone with information about the suspicious fires is asked to call the Intentionally Set Wildfires Task Force's designated tip line at 1-855-685-8788 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

With files from Mike Laanela, Tina Lovegreen, Anita Bathe and Max Haberstroh

Read more at CBC British Columbia