Hope remains as residents return to Enterprise, N.W.T., to assess wildfire damage

Families are slowly returning to the hamlet of Enterprise, N.W.T. — which was nearly wiped out from wildfire last month — to see what's left after the territory's last evacuation order was lifted last Friday.

There are a few homes still standing in the community located south of Yellowknife, including one belonging to Pat and Evelyn Coleman.

"You do not realize how bad it is until you drive into the community," said Evelyn, who says she was emotional during the trip as they came in.

The Colemans have had a hard year. They lived in Enterprise for two decades before moving to nearby Paradise Gardens in the '90s. Then, last summer, their home there was destroyed in the flood. They decided to rebuild in Enterprise. Their new home arrived in the community just six weeks before the fire tore through in August.

"You almost feel remorse or guilt because your home is here and you're intact and then you look at the neighbourhood around you and you see what everybody has lost," said Evelyn.

A FireSmart community

Nine homes and a few other buildings survived the fire that hit Enterprise last month, while nearly 90 per cent of the community was lost.

Blair Porter is the community's senior administrative officer who happened to be the hamlet's fire chief a few years ago when it took some initiatives to FireSmart parts of the community. That meant cutting a firebreak south of the community and clearing brush. He says the work paid off, including some fire-proof material on their buildings that helped keep the hamlet's infrastructure intact.

"We decided to be proactive, instead of reactive ... so we had a bit of a firebreak here but we decided to expand it to give especially these houses on the south end of town a fighting chance," said Porter, adding it also allowed crews and equipment better access to fight the flames.

"This ended up, I believe, saving this end of town ... I honestly believe if we didn't do this work we have done now we wouldn't have a community to come back to."

But not everyone was that lucky. Paul Flamand and his three children lost their home to the fire. On Sunday, he brought them to see what was left of their property — mainly ashes, rubble, and sheets of twisted metal.

"Seven boats, nine skidoos, a shop full of stuff, tools, my office, my other shop over here, my house, vehicles, everything, my Bobcat. I lost everything — 22 years of collecting," he said, adding he plans to have a temporary home for the winter as he re-establishes his plumbing business. 

But there was some good news. Flamand came prepared to dig around in the remains, hoping to find a ring that once belonged to his grandfather — and was happily surprised when he unearthed it from the ashes.

Those who stayed to fight

Mike Kimball, his wife Lynn and his brother Alan returned to Enterprise the night of the evacuation to try and save what they could. They've been in the community since that day, putting out hotspots and helping wherever they can. 

"It was all just citizens, no government or nothing," Kimball told CBC's The Trailbreaker over the weekend. They said they broke into the fire hall to borrow firefighting equipment.

"We should have had forestry fire crews."

Government officials said the decision to leave Enterprise last month was because it was too dangerous, but not all residents agreed.

"I didn't think I was going to die," Kimball said. "And once we saved our house, we had to save our neighbour's house because if his house burned down my house would burn down." 

They ended up spraying down nine properties and a couple of businesses.

A handful of other people joined them, and others helped cook them food.

Now the hope is to rebuild a better community.

But Enterprise Mayor Michael St Amour has been experiencing some issues accessing funds for residents looking to buy new clothes for winter and temporary housing, like modular homes. The plan was to dip into their community surplus, St Amour said they were told an administrator from the territory's Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) would come and take over their community if that happened.

"We are not allowed, according to MACA," St Amour said. "I was really upset. I had to take a walk. And now I am trying to figure out what our next steps are."

Many left to return

Not everyone was able to return home to Enterprise over the weekend. That's the case for 12-year-old Tanaili Kotchea Cadieux who is starting Grade 7 at a brand new school in Peace River, Alta., where her family fled to after losing their home. 

"Honestly I really wanted just to go to school to get my mind off things that happened," she said.

But the future of where she and her family will end up is uncertain as her parents are looking for work.

"Maybe this is a chance for us to start new, just like a new book or something," she said.

Her grandmother, Winnie Cadieux, lost not only her home in last month's fire but also her well-known craft store, Winnie's.

"It was ash and twisted metal," said Winnie, although the trapper statue out front is still intact.

Winnie has been living in Alberta for the last few weeks but has already seen the devastation and will be heading back north later this week to begin rebuilding.

Tammy Neal, who is now staying in Fort Providence, N.W.T., lived in Enterprise for more than 20 years. She found out they lost their home, and they're now having to deal with insurance.

"I think when you first hear about it and you don't see it ... you are still in shock and then you see the pictures and you start to feel a little angry and stressed out," said Neal.

She says they lost their son's ashes in the fire, and have some hope they can find them in the damage left.

"We found the vicinity of where they are so are going to go back with face masks," Neal said, adding there isn't much else salvageable.

She did find a fish-shaped fire pit that she bought off a former employee, who has since passed on. 

"This employee always had a big, big, big smile on his face.... So when I saw that little fish fireplace I just started to laugh. It made me happy because it reminded me of a really happy person and happy time."