East Prairie Métis Settlement 'not out of the woods yet' after wildfire destruction

Standing in front of the charred remains of his home, Ron Bellerose says he still can't comprehend the loss.

Decades of his family memories and keepsakes are gone, levelled by the wildfire that destroyed at least 14 occupied homes, including his, in East Prairie Métis Settlement, around 165 kilometres east of Grande Prairie, Alta.

"You work so hard for it and it just disappeared. In 24 hours it's gone, like your whole life changed," Bellerose said Thursday.

A fire burning out of control forced everyone in the community of about 300 people to flee last week. As of Thursday, they're still under evacuation orders, and with hot temperatures in the weekend forecast, there's still significant danger the blaze could return to the community.

"I'm still trying to grasp it, and every time I talk about it I get a lump in my throat," Bellerose said. "I'm trying to get over that speed bump and carry on, but it's going to be a long, long road."

Other structures in the community have also been damaged. East Prairie Métis Settlement council member Reva Jaycox said Wednesday that a bridge was partially burned, and dozens of power poles will need to be fixed.

People had to pick up and leave their homes at a moment's notice, and she said she's been told the significant damage was done within just a few hours.

Jaycox said residents have been able to return to check on their homes and clean out the food that's spoiled in fridges and freezers without power, but it's still not safe to stay.

"For the people that didn't have anything to come home to, for them that was very sad. It was like, it hit them. It was like, I don't even have a fridge to clean anymore."

The smell in the air struck her when she arrived, she said, describing it as a stench of not just burning wood, but everything else that's been lost.

"One thing I realize just standing here and looking around, we can rebuild and reconstruct but it will never, never be the same as it was before," she said.

"So when we come home to our community, it's not going to really be home again in regards to what we expect to return to."

'A helpless, helpless feeling'

Bellerose said he didn't see the kind of response he would expect when the fire first started up, and he wishes more had been done to tackle it before it grew.

"There was nobody here for I don't know how long … just us," he said.

Once the wildfire was bearing down on East Prairie Métis Settlement, he said he and other community members did what they could to stop it, but it wasn't enough. He said he drove through with a water truck as flames were rushing up along the road.

"When I see the fire coming … there's no water bombers there, there was no air support for water, no nothing," he said. "It was a helpless, helpless feeling."

Speaking to CBC's Radio Active on Tuesday, Alberta Métis Settlement Council president Dave Lamouche said evacuees are still in crisis, and they'll continue to need support with food, lodging and other daily necessities.

"The emotion that they go through, it's like, what do you do? … What's going to happen? Where do I go lay my head?"

In East Prairie Métis Settlement, there are still wildfire hot spots nearby, and Jaycox said that's fuelling fears about the fire sparking back up under the expected hot, dry conditions.

"We're not out of the woods yet. We still have that potential of losing even more homes."