What’s been learned since the wild res?
Thursday, May 30 was one year to the day Kristin Hutchinson got the news that her family’s home in Tantallon was destroyed by fire. A year later, she was set to move into a new house built in the same location.
The Tantallon fire, which began on May 28, 2023, ended up destroying 151 homes and burned 969 hectares of land before finally being fully extinguished in July.
MIXED EMOTIONS
The anniversary this week held a mix of emotions for Hutchinson when she spoke to Saltwire about the rebuilding process and what it means for her, her partner and her children, who were 12 and eight at the time of the fire.
“It’s been definitely a traumatic experience for them,” Hutchinson said about her boys.
“They’re very resilient, of course. They’ve gone to counselling to talk about it. And I do worry about how they’re going to feel in the new house on the same property.”
Another concern involves the lack of evacuation routes for the Westwood Hills subdivision where Hutchinson and her family are returning to live.
“And there’s concern because there’s still no (second) exit route that’s been added to the subdivision. So, that’s an ongoing battle that makes everybody a little bit nervous,” she said.
TERRIFYING JOURNEY
Technically, the subdivision has two connections to the larger thoroughfare of Hammonds Plains Road. However, Westwood Boulevard and Winslow Drive are less than 300 metres apart, while people living deeper in the neighbourhood, closer to Wrights Lake, had a terrifyingly slow drive over several kilometres to get to either exit. Meanwhile, the fire was jumping streets. Some residents resorted to using their ATVS to make their escape rather than join the traffic jam.
It was likely no comfort to these fleeing residents that their subdivision technically complied with Halifax Regional Municipality design bylaws.
It is hoped after events like this one that there are takeaways we can learn from to ensure that if and when such an emergency were to happen again, we would be better prepared.
HIGHER DENSITY
The concern for clear evacuation routes for Atlantic Canadian neighbourhoods comes at the same time the region is experiencing a desire for higher-density designs due to a housing crunch.
Halifax Regional Municipality, for example, has just passed a suite of zoning amendments to meet federal funding deadlines for 200,000 more housing units, joining highrises, townhouses and new subdivisions in the works to accommodate a growing population across Atlantic Canada.
How many of these builds are involving fire services at the planning stages? It’s one thing to check a box on a building code requirement, but an emergency evacuation plan is no longer hypothetical in a region that has seen record winds, floods and fires in just the past 24 months.
As individuals, we’re encouraged to be ready with an escape plan from our homes and a survival kit to last 72 hours. Our municipalities must also have a plan for getting us from our doorsteps to safety.
It is hoped after events like this one that there are takeaways we can learn from to ensure that if and when such an emergency were to happen again, we would be better prepared.