'We've lost it all': Halifax-area woman in limbo after losing her home to wildfire

Molly Deveau is finding comfort where she can after learning her home was destroyed in an ongoing wildfire northwest of Halifax.

“It’s a sad time, but we are OK,” Deveau said in a recent interview with CTV News.

Municipal officials said Tuesday the fire has destroyed more than 150 homes. The blaze started Sunday in Upper Tantallon and has since moved west toward Hammonds Plains.

More than 16,000 people have had to evacuate their homes because of the fire, which remains out of control.

Deveau and her 11-year-old son packed up and left their home Sunday after seeing plumes of thick smoke billowing behind her house.

She took one photo of her home as they left — prompted by the suspicion that it might not be there when she returns.

A day later, a volunteer firefighter sent Deveau a photo of where her house once stood. Little remains but charred scraps.

She is preparing herself for when she can go back.

“At that moment, it’s really going to be an ‘oh my gosh this is nothing. We’ve lost it all,’” she said.

It’s news more evacuees are getting.

At the comfort centre that been set up at Black Point and Area Community Centre, Diane Smith-Jardine looks at photos sent to her by a firefighter friend taken from a helicopter. They show the burned-out lot where her home once stood.

“I don’t know if I’ve processed it yet,” Smith-Jardine said. “No one's been hurt, that’s the main thing.”

A before and after image of Molly Deveau's home and the burned remnants of it following a wildfire. (Molly Deveau)

Deveau is leaning on the support of friends, family and strangers.

“People just want to help and it's very overwhelming, but so humbling,” she said. Deveau and her son are staying with relatives.

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