‘Many, many destroyed homes’: The devastation left by the wildfire near Halifax
Global News
During a grim tour through through the most impacted area Tuesday, piles of charred rubble could be seen where houses once stood, with burned out cars parked in driveways.
Media were invited Tuesday to view the wreckage left behind by a wildfire that swept through the Halifax-area communities of Tantallon and Hammonds Plains over the last week.
The fire, which broke out on May 28, destroyed about 200 buildings, including 151 homes, and forced the evacuation of more than 16,400 people. Many evacuees have since been able to return home, but about 4,000 remain displaced.
The fire is now under control and 100 per cent contained, and is not expected to spread further. As of Monday afternoon, it still measured at around 950 hectares.
During a grim tour through through the most impacted area Tuesday, piles of charred rubble could be seen where houses once stood, with burned out cars parked in driveways.
Dave Meldrum, deputy fire chief for Halifax Regional Municipality, spoke with media on Carmel Crescent, about three kilometres from where the fire started on Juneberry Lane in the Westwood subdivision.
The fire had moved east to the neighbourhood where he was standing, making its final journey up a steep hill to destroy all but a few homes on the crescent.
“The fire moved very quickly to this neighbourhood and severely damaged the properties here,” Meldrum said. “Many, many destroyed homes, very, very tragically, and we think of community residents at this time.”
A few scorched music sheets drifted in a watery ditch alongside the road, along with pages from a 1987 yearbook.