Key Harbour residents recall harrowing moments as forest fire burned through cottage country

Evacuation orders for the Pickerel, French and Key River areas, west of Highway 69, will remain in place throughout the weekend.

That comes as the forest fire called Parry Sound 33 is still out of control, and has grown to 6,700 hectares, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

CN Rail crews have joined the ministry's efforts to fight the fire, which crossed the train tracks just south of the Pickerel River late Thursday evening, said the Municipality of Killarney's emergency manager, Jim Rook.

"It is expected two smallish fire fronts will breach the CN line further north this evening," stated Rook. "The south shore of the Pickerel has been protected and the northern edge of the fire has not reached the shoreline.

"The western edge of the fire by the Canoe Channel has remained stable between Clear and Walter lakes. A controlled back burn will be started [Friday] on the western flank as a protective measure."

Rook also said late Thursday that the fire was moving away from the Key River area.

As winds blew the fire northeast, Rook said that residents on Hartley Bay Road — just north of the affected areas, near French River Provincial Park — are on high evacuation alert.

On the edge of disaster

Over the past week, there have been reports of cottages in the Key Harbour area going up in flames.

John Bell says the fire came within a few feet of his summer home on the Georgian Bay coast, northwest of Key River.

Without the quick thinking of a neighbour who had a water pump, Bell says his cottage would not still be standing.

"He got there in the wee moments of last Saturday morning and wet down the building and fought the fire in the shrubbery and trees to the extent he was able to," Bell recalls.

"Later in the morning, the Ministry of Natural Resources came with four fire workers and I don't know what other equipment, and continued to work on the property."

Bell, who lives in Orillia, says he drove up on Saturday and again on Sunday to help with the efforts — and he adds he wasn't alone.

"There have been lots of neighbourhood people who've come together to fight remaining small fires on and around my property, and that's been quite wonderful to see that, and have their assistance," Bell says.

"It's been, in a sense, a neighbourhood coming together in a way you wouldn't otherwise expect in this adversity."

Though his cottage has been saved, he says about 80 per cent of the trees on and around his property are burned down.

"As cottagers and vacationers, it's really the landscape [that matters]," he says.

"Buildings are important because we stay in them, but we really go because of the trees and the rocks and the water, but now we've lost some of that."

He says he believes the landscape has been destroyed for several generations.

"It takes 100-plus years to put a 100-foot pine tree back on the landscape, so that is deeply disturbing and upsetting."

Bell explains he and his neighbours are hoping to return next week, though they won't be allowed to do so until evacuation orders are lifted.

In the meantime, Killarney's emergency management team will meet again on Monday to determine the status of the orders.

'We heard a few of them go down'

Chris Dawson helps run the Key Harbour Lodge. Though the property has been spared from the flames of the large forest fire, many of the neighbouring cottages have not.

"We heard a few of them go down during the fire, you could actually hear the glass breaking and the propane going off. It was very heartbreaking, knowing they're all good friends in the area," Dawson says.

He spent much of last weekend using his own water pump to try to save the cottages still standing closest to the fire.

As Parry Sound 33 has moved away from Dawson's location and toward the northeast, the Key Harbour Lodge is housing, not only other area residents, but many of the firefighters and crew members working to control the blaze.

"They're working long hours and long days, and just constantly going out and doing anything they can. They are just an amazing bunch," he says.

"They normally live out of backpacks and tents, so just a bed under them, they are greatly appreciative of it, and we're just seeing them constantly going all day long."

In the Municipality of French River, on the northeast side of Hwy. 69, Mayor Claude Bouffard repeated on Thursday there was no imminent threat to the communities there.

He said the municipality is practicing its emergency protocol and evacuation routes, just in case, but that daily updates from the MNRF regarding the fire's movements have been positive.

A news release sent Thursday from Henvey Inlet First Nation says the community has extended its State of Emergency until August 3. The 175 residents from the community are staying at hotels in Parry Sound and Sudbury.