‘I’m so sad’: Manitoba woman finds home completely destroyed, as wildfire evacuation orders lift

Alex Karpa reports on a Manitoba woman’s experience returning home after being evacuated during wildfires this summer, to find her home destroyed.

Rose Bighetty and her family can’t seem to catch a break this summer.

Wildfire threats forced them to leave their home in Leaf Rapids, in northern Manitoba, at the beginning of July.

After months away from the community, she was finally given the green light to go back. When she returned, she couldn’t believe what she found.

“When I walked into my house, my couches were mouldy, the ceiling in my daughter’s bedroom collapsed, and everything that she had in there was mouldy,” said Bighetty. “I had a sectional and coffee table that was also all moulded.”

Bighetty found blood all over the floors in the kitchen, and her basement is now completely destroyed.

She says there was nowhere to stay in the community when they returned home earlier this week.

‘We had no choice but to stay outside’

She and her family of 14 were forced to pitch a tent and sleep on the yard outside their home. Thankfully, that only lasted one night.

Bighetty says they were able to find accommodations for another night in an apartment building in town.

“I really thought they were going to check our homes and make sure they were okay and that we didn’t have to come home to stuff like that,” she said. “I’m really hurt and sad that I have to leave again.”

When Rose spoke to CTV News, she was waiting for a bus to go to Thompson, Man., which is about a three-hour drive southeast of the community.

Not only was her home evacuated throughout most of the summer, but now she is without a home once again, for a different reason.

“I was really looking forward to being here and my family and friends, and I didn’t even have a chance to see anybody or talk to anybody,” she said. “I don’t even have a home to call now.”

“Nobody has room for us in their homes because they are all crowded,” she said.

‘Nobody wants to take responsibility’

Rose’s son Ervin was completely shocked when he saw the state of his mom’s house. He also said his aunt’s house was in the same condition.

Ervin thinks authorities should have checked the conditions of the homes before sending people back.

“You know it’s a failure on Red Cross, it’s a failure on the province, and it’s a failure on the administration and they need to be responsible about this stuff,” he said. “This should have been figured out in the beginning. They’re essentially homeless now.”

CTV News reached out to the Canadian Red Cross, which has been helping evacuees throughout the summer. Our questions were referred to the province of Manitoba.

Ervin says the town of Leaf Rapids and the Manitoba government need to expediate the process to get his mom and her aunt a home in Leaf Rapids.

“There are five houses in Leaf Rapids that are owned by the province, there is one apartment block that has 12 units. There are places available, so why aren’t you putting people in them?”

‘A lot of need’

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew was asked about this situation in Leaf Rapids at a media scrum Thursday morning.

He says there have been provincial workers on the ground working with people in the community.

“Sadly, a few people discovered, I think in a couple of situations, that they wouldn’t be able to live in their homes,” he said. “Making sure that people could get to Thompson, they can get to temporary accommodations is what we have been doing as an immediate response.”

The premier did say long-term help is coming.

“What you’re going to see in the not-too-distant future is a program for people from the Lynn Lakes, the Flin Flons, to help get a little more resources out to them,” he said.

Manitoba has had a disaster relief response program throughout the entire summer, and Kinew confirmed he is working with Ottawa to figure out disaster financial assistance for evacuees.

“We also did this initiate with the Red Cross, where Manitobans contributed, and we’re going to find a way to get those resources, that you donated, into the hands of people in the Flin Flons, the Lynn Lakes and other communities in the north,” he said.

Rose says she is frustrated beyond words.

On top of not knowing how long she will have to stay in a hotel in Thompson, she doesn’t know what is going to happen to her home, and whether she’ll even get to return to the community.

“I just wanted to come home to the place where I could sleep, cook, bathe, clean, the things I used to do and for my kids and grandkids to play outside,” she said. “Now, I’m homeless, again. It’s really hard.”