Cancer survivor says insurer ignoring air-quality concerns after Halifax wildfire damaged home

A cancer survivor whose house was filled with smoke during the Halifax-area wildfire in May says her insurance company has not done enough to ensure the home is safe, and she worries there are still pollutants inside making her sick.

Kelly Bush, her husband, their two kids and her 80-year-old mother-in-law moved back into the house in the Highland Park subdivision at the beginning of July, after a restoration company hired by TD Insurance cleaned the home and completed 30 hours of "ozone air purification."

"I smelled lemon with an undercurrent of ick," said Bush. "It's equivalent to, like, spraying perfume to cover the stink."

Since then, she said she and her mother-in-law have been coughing almost daily, had headaches and experienced burning throats, something she believes is due to smoke damage and poor air quality in the home.

About 150 homes were destroyed in a wildfire that started in late May in the Upper Tantallon area outside Halifax. Many other houses in the area that didn't catch fire were still damaged by smoke.

Bush's mother-in-law has since moved out due to the health concerns. When Bush and her family stayed in an Airbnb for a few nights while her daughter had hockey tryouts, she said her symptoms subsided.

"So when we're here, we have respiratory symptoms that would indicate irritation at the least. And when we leave, we're fine," she said.

From the moment she got back home in July, Bush said things didn't seem right. She said it smelled of smoke, and there was an odd film over surfaces throughout the home. She said she started cleaning, something she thought had been been done already.

Bush has previously had chemotherapy and radiation around her lungs, and she worries she's more vulnerable.

In a statement to CBC News, a TD Insurance spokesperson said the company has been in "constant communication" with Bush and "worked diligently to ensure her home was cleaned and restored before it was considered safe to return."

"We also followed local municipality guidelines to ensure Ms. Bush only returned to her home when it was considered safe to do so by the city of Halifax," the statement said.

Justin Liberman, director of operations at Air Quality Canada, an air-quality testing company, said chemical properties such as fine particulates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can linger in the air after wildfires. He said they can also seep into the walls and other household items like sofas, beds and other soft furniture.

"Even folks who are healthy, if you have enough contaminants in the airspace from wildfire, they can find themselves just kind of feeling like they're choking or coughing a lot," said Liberman. "Sometimes general allergy-like symptoms. You can have some pretty detrimental health effects there."

He also said that people with underlying health issues, like Bush and her mother-in-law, are even more at-risk. 

Bush said she's explained her symptoms to her insurance and restoration companies on multiple occasions, pleading with them to send someone to conduct air-quality tests. But she said this request has been "met with crickets." 

"There needs to be some regulation, some empirical evidence. Something other than 'smells good to me,' in order for people to go back into their homes," said Bush.

Limberman said air-quality testing after a wildfire is "critical." 

"Just because it looks like things may have cleared up outside, it doesn't necessarily mean the home is good," he said. "They bring in a qualified professional, they can take their readings, and before giving the OK, just verifying that the space is safe to occupy." 

A spokesperson with the Insurance Bureau of Canada said in an email that fire insurance coverage includes smoke damage: "Smoke remediation requires experienced contractors who utilize specialty tools, equipment, training and products to remediate the damage properly."

Bush is grateful her house is still standing, unlike those of many of her neighbours, but she worries about her two teenagers.

"What does all this mean for them in the long-term?" asked Bush. "There's really no answers for this, and if I could get answers, that would be great." 

If she and her family could go live somewhere else while she tries to sort these issues out, Bush said they would in a heartbeat. But she said financially and logistically, that's not an option.