When Rebecca McCrimmon evacuated with her family from Denare Beach last week, it was out of concern that access to the northeast Saskatchewan community, not far from the Manitoba border, would be cut off by the Club fire burning to the north.
She packed some clothes and mementoes, thinking she would be able to return home after the danger passed. But then on Monday, the Wolf fire suddenly moved in from the west. She watched via a video feed as the flames went down the street in front of her house. Then the feed went dark.
McCrimmon thought about the things she hadn’t packed.
“There’s a lot I wish I would have taken,” she said in an interview on Wednesday, her voice trailing off. “Like my daughter’s footprints from the hospital, her hospital hat and her first haircut, different things like that.”
McCrimmon, her husband and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter are staying with family in Gimli, Man. McCrimmon said she’s grateful for a family friend who is in the community and has been documenting the states of the properties to share with the residents, as it was “very hard” when they didn’t know if their home had been lost.
Cyndi Pedwell, who evacuated Denare Beach, Sask., and lost her home to the flames, says the wildfire devastated the bottom half of her community. Pedwell says that officials didn’t act fast enough, adding ‘I feel like we were neglected.’
Gracie Dareichuk is also dealing with the news that her home burned to the ground.
Like McCrimmon, she wasn’t too worried until the winds changed on Monday and the Wolf fire made its run toward the community. She watched the photos and videos posted from neighbours’ cameras with growing alarm — and with an enormous feeling of helplessness.
“We could just see the fire blazing up. It was tragic, like a terrible sight to see,” Dareichuk said in an interview. “It felt almost like torture, like you were just sitting there, forced to watch your house burn.”
The 21-year-old nursing student has been staying with relatives in eastern Saskatchewan as well as in a camper. While she’s grateful to have family support, Dareichuk doesn’t want to burden them by staying for weeks on end.
“I feel so lost,” she said. “I keep saying, I just want to go back home, but I know I can’t go back home because I don’t have a home now.”
The Denare Beach reserve, located just south of the village, was also hit by the fire.
Easter Dubinak, who lives on the reserve, says all but 10 homes there were lost.
“My parents’ home burned down … and all of my mother’s possessions were in our home,” Dubinak said.
“We lost her 15 years ago to breast cancer and it feels like I’ve lost her all over again. I’m so devastated.”
Dubinak said the reserve being small makes it an especially tight-knit community.
“We always came together to help one another,” she said. “When a member passed we all mourned for that member like they were family, that’s how close we were.”
Residents of Denare Beach are among the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people people displaced from 34 communities in Saskatchewan due to the wildfires, according to Wednesday’s briefing from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.
The estimated number of “values” lost — including homes, cabins, infrastructure and vehicles — is more than 400, said SPSA vice-president of operations Steve Roberts.
There were 24 active fires in the province as of Wednesday afternoon, with only five of them classified as contained.
La Ronge is one of the communities with displaced residents nervously waiting for news about any losses, after the Pisew fire moved in from the north. Two businesses, Robertson Trading and Rona, burned in the town on Tuesday evening and all but the most essential personnel have been told to leave.
Denare Beach so far has been the “largest single area of impact” in terms of values lost, Roberts said.
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