94-year-old woman still homeless after Long Lake wildfire
CBC
It's been more than two months since roughly a thousand residents of the West Dalhousie, N.S., area went home after being evacuated due to the Long Lake wildfire.
Ruth Manuel wasn't one of them.
“I’ve got no home now to go to,” the 94-year-old said in an interview with CBC News.
Her son Norman Manuel is doing his best to change that.
The Annapolis County wildfire, which was sparked by a lightning strike on Aug. 13 and has yet to be completely extinguished, burned an estimated 8,468 hectares and destroyed 20 homes and 11 outbuildings.
Among them was the house Ruth's late husband built for them over 70 years ago in West Dalhousie, adding rooms to it as their family grew.
Ruth, her son and his girlfriend lived together at the house.
On the day the fire started, Norman, 61, was watering the garden when it suddenly began raining. He said he remembers hearing thunder and seeing a flash of lightning.
“So it wasn't too long after that we got a phone call saying that there's a fire up the road,” he said.
The evacuation order came the next day. They were told they had 15 minutes to get out.
Firefighters from across Nova Scotia and Canada worked for weeks to contain the fire and save structures, making it one of the largest firefighting efforts in the province’s history. At one point, about 500 civic addresses were evacuated.
But on Aug. 24, when a Department of Natural Resources official summed up extreme conditions by saying "everything in fire behaviour you don't want happening is happening today," their home was one of 20 consumed by the raging wildfire.
Norman said his mom lost her hearing aids, wedding rings, and family photos and memorabilia.
Officials took Norman to see the property after they got the news the house was gone.
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