‘Time for the trailers to go’: Daycare begins rebuild after destruction from N.S. wildfires
Global News
The road to re-build hasn't been easy for ForestKids Early Learning in Hammonds Plains, but owners put up the walls this week after their daycare burned to ash in May 2023.
The outlook for ForestKids Early Learning in Hammonds Plains, N.S., looked grim when their daycare and the surrounding community fell victim to a wildfire in 2023.
It is not only Terri Kottwitz’s livelihood but also her home.
Burnt trees and a portable trailer, similar to what could be seen on a construction site, are the backdrop to the walls of what the daycare plans to reopen as their main building. Wooden frames can be seen outlining what promises to be a long-awaited venture for Kottwitz.
The daycare started this construction months after clearing the area of burnt debris.
“In a way, it’s hard because the educators don’t get together, and the children are more secluded,” she told Global News in an interview on Tuesday.
“It’s time for the trailers to go — we’ve had the trailers since September.”
The effects of the wildfire were devastating for the community. More than 16,000 people were evacuated from their homes, and the out-of-control blaze destroyed some 200 structures.
That fire burned 969 hectares and was said to have cost the Halifax Regional Municipality about $11.7 million.