Nova Scotia man finds hope amid the ashes of family home destroyed by wildfire

Peter Walsh looked on as the charred rubble that used to be part of his daughter's bedroom was removed by an excavator cleaning up his property.

"It's hard to believe that's everything you have worked towards and your whole life has been reduced to," he said.

The home was destroyed in wildfires near Halifax that began in late May.

Walsh sees the positives, knowing the rebuild of his family's home in the Westwood Hills neighbourhood of Upper Tantallon is a step closer with remediation work now underway.

"They're basically getting the site ready to hand over to a building contractor," he said. "You see that faint light at the end of the tunnel." 

He's had another boost in the past week, finding a home to rent in nearby Bedford. That has improved things for his wife, eight-year-old daughter and two sons, 11 and 13.

The family has felt fortunate to have been offered a place to live by people who have been out of town, but having their own space offers more stability, Walsh said. 

Since losing their home, one of 151 destroyed or damaged by the Upper Tantallon wildfire, the family has faced new challenges nearly every day.

The fire is estimated to have caused more than $165 million in insured damage according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., in data released July 5. 

"It's the initial phase of trying to do 100 things at once and, plus, take care of the needs of your family," he said. "It's overwhelming."

That has involved conversations with insurers about their home, as well as a replacement vehicle. That meant arranging test drives.

It has also included buying new clothes and other essentials. Walsh constantly had to check rental listings, sometimes well after midnight.

He found a place during an ongoing housing crisis, but it costs more than he was hoping to pay.

"The property we got is $3,700 a month," he said. "This fire didn't create the crisis, it just added 150 families to it."