Afterburn: A closer look at the devastation of the Saskatchewan wildfires

CTV News is sharing raw video from our journey to Denare Beach last week — a closer look at what residents saw when they returned home after the wildfire.

The 2025 wildfire season has been a difficult one.

Approximately 20,000 people have been displaced so far this year by forest fires, and though many are returning home, not everyone has a home to return to.

In Denare Beach, where CTV News spoke to residents last week, 300 homes were levelled by the Wolf Fire, in a community of just 413 homes.

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The fire laid waste to so many structures.

In some cases, the only remainder of the family homes that once stood on the land are the brick chimneys, rising up from the rubble — monuments to lost memories and lives interrupted.

But words can’t truly capture the scale of the loss.

Instead, we’ve decided to share our raw footage from the community, to serve as a reminder of the work that’s left to be done, after the fire is put out, and the crisis has ended.

See the footage in the video player above this story.