3 days ago
'People's nerves are frazzled': C.B.N evacuees say they're living in fear
An out-of-control wildfire continues to burn in Conception Bay North, forcing more communities to evacuate over the weekend.
At the evacuation centre in Carbonear, people said they felt stressed and anxious.
Gerard and Eileen Howell evacuated their Northern Bay home on Saturday.
"This time tomorrow my house could be gone," Gerard Howell said on Saturday. He's been living there for 28 years.
"I'm still into a bit of a daze," he said. "I'm hoping [to] wake up and just — this was just a dream."
Eileen Howell said the most important thing is that everyone is safe.
"You can replace everything else. You can't replace a life," she said.
Conception Bay North resident Scott Chandler told Radio-Canada that he already knows his home is gone.
He said he's been keeping his mind off of it by volunteering.
"I'm just glad that the community got out safely," he said.
But Chandler said the number of fires this year have people feeling scared.
"We are living in fear."
It wasn't Chandler's first time being evacuated due to a wildfire.
He said he used to live in High Level, Alta., and he was evacuated from that community for more than two weeks due to a wildfire a few years ago.
12 fires, 3 evacuations this year
Susan Rose is a town councillor in Small Point-Adam's Cove-Blackhead-Broad Cove.
She told Radio-Canada on Friday that this is the area's 12th fire since May.
On May 7, the town had its first evacuation. It was then evacuated again three weeks later. Now, people are out of their homes for a third time.
"Our town has been terrorized," said Rose.
She said she believes an arsonist is lighting the fires.
Rose said the summer has been extremely stressful for the community, and firefighters are overworked.
"They're working day and night. They're exhausted. And we still have a long way to go."
Community support
On Sunday morning, Small Point-Adam's Cove-Blackhead-Broad Cove Mayor Curtis Delaney said weather conditions guaranteed a challenging day for fire suppression.
"People's nerves are frazzled. The uncertainty is, I think, the biggest issue right now," said Delaney. "When is this fire going to be out? When can we get back?"
In the meantime, Delaney recommends that community members lean on each other for support.
"These are trying times. There's going to be a lot of rough days ahead. But if we pull together as we've done in other cases, we'll get through this," he said.
