Halifax and Shelburne County residents on edge as wildfire anniversaries approach
CBC
It's been almost a year since Samantha Brannen fled her Clyde River, N.S., home as it became shrouded in thick smoke and ash rained from the sky.
Brannen would not be able to return for two weeks as a wildfire tore through Shelburne County in southwest Nova Scotia.
Now, the memories are coming back.
"I can start to feel it," Brannen said. "Every time I look out and I see fog and I think, 'Is that smoke?'"
As the anniversaries of the wildfires in Shelburne and Halifax counties approach, there are feelings of unease throughout the communities.
About 60 homes were destroyed by the Shelburne County wildfire, which started May 26. It grew to 23,525 hectares, forcing about half of the region's population from their homes.
A year later, Brannen is feeling lucky her home was saved and is in a good place, but empathizes with those who are having a harder time.
Sherry Doane, a volunteer firefighter in Shelburne, said it is clear many are under strain.
"People are concerned that it's going to happen again and I know that they are exhausted with that worry," said Doane, who helped fight the fires last year.
Doane has already been a part of the fire department's response to some smaller fires this season that have been quickly extinguished, as well as a number of false alarms showing people are constantly on the lookout.
"Everyone is very anxious," she said, adding it is also reassuring that people are paying close attention to the situation.
There is also tension in Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains the year after 151 homes were lost and more than 16,000 people were evacuated from the suburban areas west of downtown Halifax.
That wildfire sparked just a couple days after the one in Shelburne County, and both would burn for two months. They were officially declared extinguished in late July.
"When we hear a siren in Westwood Hills, everybody's head perks up," said Dustin O'Leary, the president of the neighbourhood's residents association. "People on social media within the subdivision are saying, 'What was that? Is everybody OK?'"
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.