'No scenario' where egress is created in Westwood Hills before wildfire season: HRM councillor

A Halifax councillor is casting serious doubt that an emergency egress will be created in Westwood Hills before the start of the 2025 wildfire season.

Calls for an emergency exit have grown steadily louder since a major wildfire broke out in May 2023 in the Upper Tantallon subdivision — where there is only one way in and one way out.

Nearly two years later, residents of Westwood Hills are still waiting for an exit connecting them to Highway 103.

"Will we have a completed egress route by the time fire season starts? I don't see a scenario where that would happen," said Coun. Nancy Hartling, whose district includes Westwood Hills.

"That's just the reality of the situation."

Westwood Hills resident Nick Horne said watching the images of the wildfires in California brings back memories of evacuating his home in 2023. The Upper Tantallon fire spread quickly to neighbouring communities and destroyed 150 homes. Some evacuees fleeing the area had to drive through black smoke with flames on both sides.

"We were trapped in the neighbourhood. We couldn't exit," Horne told host Portia Clark of CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia.

"I live on a lake in the back of Westwood Hills, so the neighbours were coming to my place because I have a boat and their next plan was to go out into the lake and hope not to burn."

With only one road leading into his subdivision, Horne and his family felt "helpless" as they sat in their car, stuck in traffic, for about an hour and a half while the flames approached. 

"I was in a row of probably 100 cars in a neat, orderly row with one lane open for emergency traffic," he said, adding he was "proud" of his fellow community members for remaining "calm and orderly."

"Nobody panicked," he said.

Months after the devastating fire, a staff report presented to Halifax regional council outlined three options to create an emergency exit to facilitate evacuations.

One of the options was later shut down because it would involve building a bridge. 

Hartling, who has represented the district of Prospect Road-St. Margarets since last October, told Information Morning Nova Scotia that she can't speak to which of the remaining options are being reviewed due to confidentiality.

However, she did say there are funds earmarked in the 2025-26 budget for a regional study on the egresses of suburban and rural communities. 

She said getting an egress in Westwood Hills and other communities is important, especially as climate change increases the severity of wildfires.

"There are many communities across District 13 and all throughout HRM that having watched what had happened in Westwood Hills are now acutely aware of the need of or for egress," said Hartling.

Horne said any progress would be good. In the meantime, he is asking the municipality to take measures to protect residents. 

"It would be good for HRM to expeditiously put in some sort of a temporary egress option until the permanent one is built," he said. "Even if it's not perfect, it would be great to have a temporary egress."