‘Too little, too late’: Denare Beach residents frustrated with wildfire response

WATCH: Residents of Denare Beach are frustrated with the response leading up to and during the evacuation and wildfire that burned much of their community.

Residents of Denare Beach are frustrated with the response leading up to and during the evacuation and wildfire that burned much of their community.

The community of about 700 residents northwest of Prince Albert returned home on Wednesday after being evacuated for about a month due to wildfires.

On Thursday, as neighbours hugged and tried to make sense of the destruction left in their community by the wildfire, the mayor of Denare Beach looked for a bright spot.

“The water plant and the sewer plant are functioning. If they weren’t functioning, that alone would probably take three to four years to get rolling,” said Carl Lentowicz, mayor of Denare Beach.

He said unofficial estimates suggest the number of properties destroyed is in the 300 range.

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Residents stayed behind to try and help local firefighters who found themselves short-handed when the fire shifted.

“I know that the area could have fared much better had there been more sprinklers and fire teams available,” Paul Rossington, a local contractor, said.

“I’m not saying that it would have been saved completely, but the losses could have been minimized or much less had we had help from the SPSA and the government.”

Those who evacuated said there was confusion and delays around available support, leaving many without any idea where to go for help.

“I’m told that there’s help to help me out a little bit, and that’s helped other people, but, you know, too little, too late,” said Garry Angells, a Denare Beach resident.

NDP MLA Jordan McPhail joined residents calling for answers from the province.

“They might not have gotten it right by supporting evacuees when they were displaced from their communities. They might not have gotten it right when it came to providing resources to the front lines of these fire lines and supporting communities where they’re at, but they have an opportunity to get this right and make sure that the people behind me have a very clear plan from the provincial government on how they’re going to be supported as they rebuild their community,” McPhail said.

Premier Scott Moe said this fire season has been one of the most challenging in recent years, and that his government will review to see how they can improve the response to wildfires.

“We are starting to have discussions about how do we learn from this year and other years as well, and how we do compare with other jurisdictions and share best practices on both the wildfire response as well as the evacuation response,” Moe said.

Meanwhile, locals know they’ll need to lean on neighbours to get through the loss of homes, memories, and fortunes.

“We still have Creighton, still have Flin Flon, and the Flin Flon Bombers. So, we have hockey to look forward to. And so, you know, not all is lost, but a lot of it has been,” said Angells.