Despite the fires raging on for more than a few weeks now, many people in the province still don’t know the hardships faced by those evacuated. Families such as the Santanas who are staying in the Humboldt campground have been forced to leave everything behind, unsure whether or not there will even be a home or a community to come back to.
“It was really frantic because I knew we would have to leave (our home) at some point, so we were trying to pack the camper here and there with stuff, but … we had company come up in between that time, so we took stuff out of the camper,” said Tessa Santana. “I didn’t even have time to retrieve it because we were trying to get the dogs out from under the deck and they wouldn’t come and you’re crying because you have to leave everything behind.”
Santana and her husband, Leonardo, evacuated to Humboldt in their fifth wheel on July 4 with their two daughters, 10-year-old Sierra and 13-year-old Savannah from La Ronge. Santana’s cousin lives in town and she/he invited them to come here instead of going to one of the centres in Saskatoon or Prince Albert. Her parents and Santana’s 26-year-old daughter recently joined the family.
Since they’ve come, Santana said the support from the community has been absolutely amazing. Donations such as clothing and food items have been pouring in, so they don’t have to stress about providing for their kids. Since they’re unable to work and have no money coming in, that’s one fewer thing to worry about. Now all they have on their minds is the condition of their house and their animals.
“Considering the situation you’re in, you make the best of it and we are in an awesome place to make the best of it because everyone here is amazing,” she said. “You tell them your situation and everyone is just like, ‘Oh my God’ and right away you just get this warm felt welcome and it’s just good. I mean, it’s not a vacation because it’s stressful and you’re constantly worrying about what’s going on at home, but you make the best of it.”
Santana and her husband had actually been staying in their house for four weeks after the town of La Ronge was beginning to get evacuated. They live seven kilometres north of the town and have two dogs, chickens, rabbits (that just had babies), and miniature donkeys.
They were making preparations to keep the house as safe as possible by installing sprinklers around it, which the firefighters came and helped them with.
“We said, ‘Can you take the kids out of there?’ So that was all fine; they got the kids out and took them to our eldest daughter. We knew if we left they wouldn’t let us back in,” said Santana. “Me and Len stayed there and helped the firefighters. I made meals for them while they were trying to cut down willow trees. Willow trees don’t burn, so they made big towers and hooked up the sprinklers to the highest point of the tower.”
Everyday was filled with insecurity for them. Santana said they would go out daily to specific points on their property to see if there was any fire, because that would mean they had to leave immediately. They monitored the winds and the wind direction until the day the police came and told them they had to leave.
“They were constantly trying to put out the fire, but they couldn’t and kept getting bigger until it merged with another big fire, so it was so big at that point that they just couldn’t put it out,” she said. “So (the firefighters) had hooked up all the water pumps and then left me and my husband. We were going to go take a glance at where the fire was because you could hear the fire roaring in the bush … it was almost like water bombers fighting it, but there were no water bombers. It was actually the fire. It creates its own wind and if there’s a breeze up above, that breeze comes in and just circulates and you can hear this roaring, which means the fire is very close.”
It was shortly thereafter that the fire chief himself came and told Santana and her husband that they had to leave immediately. Apparently, the fire had swept behind them, taken out their neighbours’ house, and was creeping up on them from the rear. After all their weeks of preparations, Santana and her husband still weren’t ready to leave behind everything they loved.
Since she had been using the food supplies that were originally in the camper, they had no time to pack it all back in. They had to open the corrals so the donkeys could escape if they needed to and the chicken coops so they wouldn’t be trapped in there. They had to leave their dogs behind because they couldn’t get the panicked canines out from under the porch. The only things she managed to take with them was the family photo albums and important documents.
“It was hectic and as you were leaving you’re going, ‘There’s my whole life.’ We kind of knew we would have to leave at some point, but until that time comes, you’re never really ready,” she said. “I had packed some crates that I had pictures in and that’s pretty much all I got … everything else is just valuables, it’s stuff that can be replaced. I collect a lot of antiques. I have antique cameras from all over the world. I have antique photographs. It was all left behind. (But) we have each other and that’s the main thing.”
Fortunately, the SPCA came in and was able to rescue all but the dogs and place them at a nearby acreage that was willing to take the animals for the time being. The dogs were still too scared to come out from under the porch, so the firefighters have been leaving food for them instead.
One would think that was the end of their troubles, but it wasn’t. Once they finally left their house and headed to their eldest daughter’s house in town, they discovered that the whole town was being evacuated and that they’d have to move again. It was then that they took their two daughters and headed for Humboldt. Her eldest daughter went to one of the evacuation centres in Saskatoon first before joining them.
“My daughter was in Saskatoon and she said they didn’t get (the same level of) help and support that she’s even been getting since she got here,” said Santana. “Even though you have the stress of (being evacuated), all the amazing people of Humboldt have been kind to us. It’s been a lot easier.”
Between all that, Santana said she and her husband now have to worry about the future. They heard the sprinklers they set up have so far saved their house, but it will be pointless if the community burns. They’ll need to find new jobs and probably a new community to live in.
“That’s the thing, you just don’t know. At what point do you say we’re running out of money, do we go get an apartment? Go find work?” she said. “Me and my husband will go for a bike ride at night and that’s where we can do our most thinking and talking, that’s when we have our space together. This is a nice community so we might just have to stay here, but that’s still up in the air. I would hope at some point we will get some kind of direction as to what we need to do.”
Update: As of July 20, La Ronge has been declared safe for residents to return.
