Cabin owner documents 'haunting' destruction of East Trout Lake, Sask., by wildfire

CBC

2 days ago

Nathan Pitka says it was a difficult journey up to East Trout Lake, Sask., to see the absolute devastation to the townsite.
He had seen the drone footage released by the province last week that showed an overhead view of the flattened cabins, but it didn't fully prepare him for what it was like on the ground.
"What we saw was haunting," Pitka said in an interview on Tuesday.
"We were at a loss of words to what we saw. The entire community had been devastated. There wasn't a single structure standing in the community."
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Pitka's extended family had five cabins at East Trout Lake, about 150 kilometres north of Prince Albert. He had gone up there last month and planned to spend the summer there, like usual. But when the evacuation order from the resort subdivision came on May 21, he packed up and left.
WATCH | First look at devastation for East Trout Lake property owners:
RAW | First look at devastation for East Trout Lake property owners
55 minutes ago
Duration 1:39
Some property owners whose cabins and homes at East Trout Lake were burnt by the Shoe fire got a first-hand look at the charred rubble.
One week later, Pitka got the news that the Shoe fire had burned through. That fire is still the biggest one burning in the province, last measured at more than 400,000 hectares as of Tuesday morning.
Pitka has been staying in Saskatoon. On Saturday, he travelled up to East Trout Lake to document the devastation for himself and the other cabin owners.
He shared the footage from his dashcam with CBC News, showing the journey up past Candle Lake and through the forest.
"We thought it was important for ourselves, but also to let others in the community see the extent of the damage and devastation," Pitka said.
He described areas of scorched forest with nothing but stumps. The sky was dark with smoke and fires were still smouldering in the ditches.
Piles of metal and concrete are all that's left of the cabins. He took photos of each site to share with other cabin owners, so others wouldn't have to make the journey.
Pitka said he and his family are grieving the destruction at East Trout Lake, which is "more than a location" — it's been the gathering site for his family for nearly 50 years.
"I think I'm speaking for a lot of the residents that are out there," he said. "These have been multi-generational cabins and used year-round for connecting with the land and escaping the stresses of life."
His family is working on how they're going to stay connected this year, without their beloved gathering place.
On Tuesday, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) president Marlo Pritchard took a moment at the start of his daily briefing to acknowledge the "fear of the unknown" for those waiting to see what will happen to their homes, and the loss that others have already experienced.
"I really want to acknowledge and give my thoughts and prayers to those that have been impacted directly, or indirectly, of these fires," Pritchard said. "There's a number of individuals that have lost property; we've had a number of individuals evacuated … that are sitting, waiting to hear whether their property has been impacted."
On Monday, parts of the Northern Village of Denare Beach were consumed by the Wolf fire as it encroached on the community, near the Manitoba border in the province's northeast.
La Ronge and surrounding communities were evacuated Monday as the Pisew fire approached from the north. Evacuees reported scary, long journeys south in convoys through flames and smoke from two other fires in the area — the Shoe and Ditch02 fires.
About 8,000 people have been evacuated from northern Saskatchewan due to wildfires so far, according to the SPSA.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 21 wildfires burning in the province and the year-to-date total is 230, far above the five-year average of 132 fires for the same period.