Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Daily Herald
Fourteen days of wondering whether our home survived, our Town survived, or the Industrial area was protected. So many thoughts race through a person’s head when we’re on the Evacuation Rollercoaster!
Then. Of course, there’s the whole idea that we might get home, but, would we have to leave again? Sometimes, I was just happy to be away and safe.
Travelling with a “temporarily repaired” vehicle, got to me one night and I didn’t sleep thinking about the car and getting home again.
There’s always the thoughts that we might have nothing to go home to. That happened to many people in communities across the north with this 2025 fire season.
Particularly the folks who belong to Denare Beach. So many homes and other parts of the community’s infrastructure was lost to the fire.
My heart goes out to anyone who lost their home or cabin. Although I have never had a cabin, I remember one time working on my father to get us a cabin by the lake. I had been a guest in my friend’s cabin for a weekend and so enjoyed the experience.
In the end my father said, “No.” he was not buying a cabin, and he outlined his reasoning, which was very fair.
But, it’s the only sense I have of owning a cabin. I learned from that family, how precious a cabin away from the city could be. Often it’s a place where people can relax and enjoy themselves away from the everyday comings and goings that are tied to different aspects of life, like work, or school, or other scheduled activities.
I saw somewhere an estimated 30 cabins were lost in the Lac La Ronge area. I don’t have info at the moment on cabins from other communities across the north.
As it was in 2015, the Facebook became an important means of communication throughout the evacuation period. Instead of picking up the phone to check every four minutes, it became one minute or less this time.
And, while people in communities in the south welcomed evacuees; it was hard, because people didn’t really know or understand the trauma we were going through. While there were times I just wanted to get in the car and head home, I knew I could not do that, with any common sense.
But, I wanted to.
Then there were times, when I thought, ‘I really don’t want to go back. I don’t want to face the fact that much had burned.’ The geography around my home would be changed, maybe unrecognizable.
But the day came, when we were allowed to go home!
As my husband was evacuated through the health system, arrangements had to be organized between the Health Centre in La Ronge, transportation, and the place he was staying.
I stayed until he was being sent home and travelled the more-than-six hundred kilometres home in the one day, travelling across the Saskatchewan Prairie, up into the Parkland area and finally, home to the much changed, but beloved bush.
In 2015, I was out of the community when we were evacuated, so, although I had driven part of the way south with an escort, it was not the same as this year, when I drove through areas with flames on both sides of the highway. In 2015, I travelled home at the same time as others when we were first allowed to return. This time I was later, so that made a difference.
People were home and the community was active with many businesses open already.
We were missing two long-term businesses, in the middle of Town, the burned metal remains of Robertson Trading Ltd. and RONA hardware. A stark image of the power of fire, in the midst of much that was familiar.
It was good to be home!!!
It wasn’t until I took a tour through the burned areas that I saw the damage, how close the fire came in different areas. And that is a topic for Evacuation Rollercoaster 2025 #5.
Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan is a writer and journalist based out of La Ronge.
