Sarah Mills: There's nothing like the collective joy we get from sports
With the Edmonton Oilers up one game in the Stanley Cup Final, Sarah Mills says there's something very special about the...
At her kid’s apartment in Saskatoon, Cyndi Pedwell watched her home on Denare Beach burn through her doorbell camera, until the fire fried her internet cord.
Most of Pedwell’s neighbourhood has been reduced to ash after the fast-moving flames of the Wolf Fire moved into the community on Monday evening.
“It’s just devastating,” she said. “We’re also trying to contact each other and see how we’re all doing.”
Some of the remains of her home are a blackened washer and dryer, a few tangles of metal, and a scorched entry ornament to the property.
Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) vice-president Steve Roberts said over 400 values – like cabins, houses, vehicles, and structures – have burned across the province so far. The hardest hit area is Denare Beach.
“Terrible, terrible, terrible,” Pedwell’s father said in a video, touring the damage on the property.
Pedwell and her family have lived on the property since 1992, building a new house there in 2004. She saw her home for the final time in person on May 28 before she was evacuated from the community.
With only a few things she was able to take, irreplaceable treasures like family photo albums, collectibles, handmade cards, and her kids school art projects were lost to the flames.
“That stuff when you hold it, that memory comes back … now those treasures won’t be there for me anymore,” she said.
Over a week ago, Pedwell left the community in a convoy of vehicles to get their kids’ apartment in Saskatoon.
“It’s a big monster,” Pedwell said about the fire that swallowed her home. (Cyndi Pedwell/ Submitted)
“I think it was bumper to bumper the whole entire way,” she said. “It took more than double the amount of time to get there. We rolled into Saskatoon at 5 a.m., so the sun was rising by the time we’ve got there because we just had to circumvent a whole bunch of different ways to get here safely.”
About 10,000 to 15,000 people have been evacuated due to wildfires so far, according to the SPSA. Denare Beach is one of 34 communities who were told to pack their bags and leave.
Pedwell said half of Denare Beach was “obliterated” by the fast-moving flames, including the community’s water and sewer plant.
With no home to return to, she felt frustrated with how the provincial government had handled its response to the flames.
“In the north, we’re still important,” she said. “I know that we’re not the high population of people, but we we still matter. I feel like we’re just not getting that.”
Pedwell wants to see the province bring in even more resources to get the flames out, and be better equiped for future wildfire seasons.
“This is a humongous fire,” she said. “Our volunteer firemen are doing the best they can.”
With no water and sewer lines working in Denare Beach due to the flames, Pedwell said she is still re-evaluating whether to rebuild in the same spot.
