Halifax wildfires: Residents of city’s western suburbs want more escape routes

She's upset that Halifax doesn't have "a viable" exit route for the outer areas of her Westwood Hills suburb — where a wildfire erupted on May 28, 2023.

Almost two years after wildfires destroyed 200 structures, including 151 homes, in the western suburbs of Halifax, residents are anxious about the city’s slow progress in creating more ways for them to flee if the flames return.

Standing behind her child-care centre, rebuilt after it was destroyed in the 2023 spring wildfire, owner Donna Buckland said in a recent interview she has a detailed emergency plan outlining how staff and 68 children would escape in case of fire.

But she’s upset that Halifax doesn’t have “a viable” exit route for the outer areas of her Westwood Hills suburb — where a wildfire erupted on May 28, 2023 — even as federal research has noted the region has been abnormally dry over the past year.

City council recently approved a $2.7-million emergency road exit for Westwood Hills, but it’s to be located close to two existing exits — and about three kilometres away from Buckland’s child-care centre.

Buckland and other residents in nearby communities who were interviewed by The Canadian Press say further changes are needed. They all have memories of the spring of 2023, when a heat dome and tinder-dry forests fed the blaze on the outskirts of the Nova Scotia capital. Homeowners, startled by the rapidity of the spread, encountered traffic jams while attempting to flee their neighbourhoods. More than 16,000 people were evacuated.

“It’s not OK. The Halifax Regional Municipality has to treat this seriously. One emergency exit isn’t enough. They need something on the back of the subdivision,” Buckland said.

About 12 kilometres from Buckland’s daycare, Julie Davies has similar fears and frustrations about limited escape options in the White Hills and Hammonds Plains subdivisions.

In the months following the fires, Davies learned the main evacuation plan for her daughter’s school would only bring students to one of two, closely adjacent exits feeding into the main road. She predicted that if fires reached her area, both exits would likely be blocked by blazes, and the main road would be gridlocked.