‘It doesn’t get back your history’: Denare Beach rebuilding after devastating wildfire

WATCH: The mayor of Denare Beach says the long road to rebuilding has begun, but first the burned debris needs to be dealt with properly.

Hundreds of Denare Beach residents are tired, frustrated and devastated by the ordeal of the last month.

This week, locals returned to the place where their homes once stood. And while the road to rebuilding is long and arduous, residents say they feel much better now that they’re back home.

Some residents have called Denare Beach home for decades.

“1948, my dad was a commercial fisherman and trapper up around Reindeer Lake,” said Gerry Angell, who says only seven families lived in the community when he first moved.

“I became school-aged, so they moved down here, and I’ve been here since 1948, that’s 77 years.”

While Angell says his home was spared, he’s heard too many stories of neighbours returning to find piles of rubble.

“It’s just sad, it’s heartbreaking,” said Angell. “I was just talking to a friend of mine who lost his wife to cancer a few months ago, and now he lost his home and he lost all his memories and pictures and everything else. It’s devastating.”

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In spite of all the destruction, the first thing on everyone’s mind was the safety of those who stayed behind to try and save the community.

“We got all of our guys out of here, and that was definitely the priority of everybody,” said Jen Hysert, who lost her home to the fire.

“And to see a community lose 300 of 413 houses and every single person here saying that was the most important thing to us that our guys were safe. I don’t know what it’s like in a bigger centre, but we knew all of them, and they were either a friend or a relative or a neighbour or a friend of a friend.”

While the damage was hard to comprehend, locals say returning home was a weight off their shoulders.

“This is what is left of my home,” said Hysert. “And yet this feels better being here than the lost, sick feeling you were left with, with no supports for a month, living outside of here.”

“I equate it to like having a wake,” said Kari Lentowicz, who also lost her home in the fire. “I always need that closure, and when I go to a wake, you get to see the person who’s passed. And it gives you an opportunity to make it real and then move forward and grieve.”

Lentowicz says finding a little peace on her dock was the best thing she could do when she returned home.

“I got out of the truck and heard the loons calling,” she said. “Made my way down to the dock eventually and just looked out. And the reason I’m here is still here. The reason I settled here is absolutely, 100 per cent here.”

Now the mayor of Denare Beach says the long road to rebuilding has begun. But it’s going to take time for the burned debris to be dealt with properly.

“That comes with rules,” said Carl Lentowicz, mayor of Denare Beach. “And like a lot of stuff, nobody’s ever handled that before in that capacity. So there’s going to be a learning curve. As far as what I see personally is there are many venues of damage and concern to be dealt with, and each one has a myriad of things that you have to do.”

And once the wreckage is dealt with, the process of dealing with insurance begins. But residents like Lentowicz say that won’t do much to replace the things you can’t replace.

“Insurance does not pay for your sense of security,” she said. “It doesn’t buy back your traditional practices. It doesn’t buy back all the things that you grew up with. The memories, the photos, those are priceless. Insurance is there, yeah, to help us build another house. But it doesn’t get back your history.”

But in spite of the mounting challenge of rebuilding, residents are confident in their ability to get back to normal.

“We had a real good thing going here, still do,” said Angell. “But that has to be rebuilt.”

“Our little village will do what it does best to come together, support each other and rebuild together,” said mayor Lentowicz. “We’re all in this together.”