Evacuees confront the losses — houses, animals, even a prosthetic limb — from devastating N.L. wildfire

Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador are devastated with news that their homes and cabins have been destroyed by out-of-control wildfires.

Carbonear, N.L. -- As she takes refuge in her daughter’s home in Carbonear, N.L., Elsa Fitzgerald is slowly taking stock of everything she lost in her own house merely 30 minutes away.

Fitzgerald’s home was one of the 86 buildings that Newfoundland and Labrador officials say were destroyed in Western Bay by the Kingston wildfire that ripped through the community over the past two weeks.

“Realizing now, I should have took a lot more than I did. Everything is gone,” she said.

“I never even took my leg. I’m an amputee and my leg’s been sore, so I never even took my leg.”

Elsa fears the toll also includes her two cats. The woman said she didn’t think the fire would reach her community when she was first evacuated on Aug. 4. Nor did she believe it would keep her from her home weeks later.

“Total devastation,” she said. “Everything is gone.’”

For dozens of families in Newfoundland’s Conception Bay North region, the weeks of anxious waiting have turned even more devastating — with news that their homes or cabins have been destroyed in the Kingston wildfire that remains out of control.

Deborah Coombs, another Western Bay homeowner, was informed Monday by telephone that her property — which was to become her retirement home — was destroyed.

“It’s not going to feel real until I get out there and actually look, and see that my barn is gone, my root cellar is gone, my home is gone,” she said.

With an evacuation order still in effect, homeowners in the region have not been able to return to their properties to examine the damage.

Coombs says her retirement plans are on pause as she examines how she can proceed. Neither Coombs nor Fitzgerald had home insurance on their properties. Coombs said she couldn’t get a woodstove certified, which made her ineligible for coverage.

“I have to figure out what comes next,” she said. “Do I sell the land and buy something newly built? Do I mortgage my house in St. John’s and buy something else out along the shore? I really don’t know yet.”

On Thursday, the federal government announced it would match some donations made to the Canadian Red Cross’s fundraising efforts for wildfire relief in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The money will be targeted to “provide disaster relief to residents most directly impacted in the affected areas,” according to a statement by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada.

Coombs said she hasn’t heard whether there will be targeted financial assistance for those who lost their homes in the wildfires. She is staying at her home in St. John’s, and said she feels lucky to have another property to live in.

Fitzgerald said she and her family are committed to rebuilding in Western Bay, even if the path forward is not clear.

“My son-in-law, my grandson, says we’ll go there, we’ll clean it up, we’ll cut logs.”

With files from NTV