Nova Scotia man finds hope amid the ashes of family home destroyed by wildfire

Peter Walsh looked on as the charred rubble that used to be part of his daughter's bedroom was removed by an excavator cleaning up his property.

"It's hard to believe that's everything you have worked towards and your whole life has been reduced to," he said.

The home was destroyed in wildfires near Halifax that began in late May.

Walsh sees the positives, knowing the rebuild of his family's home in the Westwood Hills neighbourhood of Upper Tantallon is a step closer with remediation work now underway.

"They're basically getting the site ready to hand over to a building contractor," he said. "You see that faint light at the end of the tunnel." 

He's had another boost in the past week, finding a home to rent in nearby Bedford. That has improved things for his wife, eight-year-old daughter and two sons, 11 and 13.

The family has felt fortunate to have been offered a place to live by people who have been out of town, but having their own space offers more stability, Walsh said. 

Since losing their home, one of 151 destroyed or damaged by the Upper Tantallon wildfire, the family has faced new challenges nearly every day.

The fire is estimated to have caused more than $165 million in insured damage according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., in data released July 5. 

"It's the initial phase of trying to do 100 things at once and, plus, take care of the needs of your family," he said. "It's overwhelming."

That has involved conversations with insurers about their home, as well as a replacement vehicle. That meant arranging test drives.

It has also included buying new clothes and other essentials. Walsh constantly had to check rental listings, sometimes well after midnight.

He found a place during an ongoing housing crisis, but it costs more than he was hoping to pay.

Still paying the mortgage

"The property we got is $3,700 a month," he said. "This fire didn't create the crisis, it just added 150 families to it."

The family has a budget from insurance for additional living expenses that is there to help with rent. They are also now trying to find furniture for their rented home. 

While this is happening, they are also still paying the mortgage on the home that burned down. 

Walsh is concerned the additional expenses being provided by insurance may not cover that rent for the two years it may take to rebuild their home in Westwood Hills.

"In a year's time I may have to find another rental property that is a little bit lower on the budget," he said.

He said the four-bedroom home is bigger than the family was looking for, but he signed the lease for the property before even looking at it given the rental market and having so many other things to do.

"This is like having a second full-time job," he said of the overall experience. "It's been tough."

The resilience of his family has amazed him through all of the loss.

Together, they have made a list of everything they need to replace, which is now 70 pages. It includes guitars, keyboards, microphones and drums both he and his oldest son are missing.

Some things cannot be replaced, like tools gathered over three generations.

However, the family is pleased the insurance company has organized for the remediation work on the property.

Steel that remained has been removed. Ash from the fire has also been taken away.

"Those materials had to be separated and there had to be consideration put into how they were removed because of the potential toxicity that existed within the remains of the home," he said.

Jamesway Environmental Services have been doing work on the property and a number of other sites in the area.

"We're separating the material, so we can haul it to the right facilities," said Phil James, a manager at the company. "Then we're removing the foundations for new construction so the homeowners are able to rebuild."

James said his crews are digging up the ash and transporting it to an approved facility.

"It's the first step in a rebuild," he said. "It's a major concern to a lot of homeowners to get moving forward. So we're just trying to help where we can."

It is still very early in the rebuilding process. But Walsh said it feels good just being back at the property where the family has lived since 2016.

"Earlier I saw a couple of deer running down the laneway and it's things like that that are still making me smile." he said. "So it's a little bit more hopeful now."

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