Kerry Collins’ dream-job of maintaining a remote angler’s paradise near Armstrong went up in flames last week.
About a week later, the lodge and cabin operator is still coming to grips with the fallout of the devastating wildfire that destroyed his livelihood.
“All our clients — they’re so heart-broken,” the 63-year-old Collins said on Monday from his home near Indianapolis, Ind. “We have known so many generations of families over the years, watched their children grow up.”
Collins barely escaped by boat early last Wednesday after smoke from a large fire bearing down on Caribou Lake made it nearly impossible to navigate.
The main lodge and the facility’s six rustic cabins were consumed by the flames.
“There’s nothing left at all, everything’s gone,” Collins said.
Collins, who suffers from heart issues, said “it’s very doubtful” that he will be able to re-build the business that has been in his family for several decades.
“It’s very difficult to get insurance for these types of places,” he noted.
Collins said he partly blames Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), which he says should have arrived with sprinkler systems that he believes may have saved his lodge and cabins.
“The effort was not just there,” Collins said. “The MNR should have called me, but there was not a word. There was lots of smoke in the sky (the day before the wildfire got perilously close), but I did not see a helicopter or a plane.”
Asked on Monday about claims that MNR’s response in the Armstrong area was late, a ministry spokesman said “the question you have raised has come up several times, and has been answered by both MNR Minister Mike Harris and Premier (Doug Ford).”
At a Friday news conference in Thunder Bay, Ford said the province is “throwing every single resource we can” at the wildfire situation.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, who accused Ford of merely using his Thunder Bay event as a “photo-op,” said some First Nations have had to “fend for themselves” in face of the wildfires.
Meanwhile, nearby Armstrong and Whitesand First Nation remained evacuated to Thunder Bay on Monday as firefighting efforts continued to keep the fires from approaching the village and the First Nation.
Armstrong Local Services Board member Diane Laybourne, who is staying at her son’s house in Thunder Bay, said she lost two cabins on Caribou Lake, and is aware of other cabins near Armstrong that were also lost in the fires.
“As unorganized communities, we depend on the (provincial ministries) to keep us informed, but there does not seem to have been a plan in place,” said Laybourne, who has been evacuated since last Tuesday.
Laybourne commended Whitesand First Nation for making sure anyone from Armstrong who didn’t have relatives in Thunder Bay could also find accommodation and obtain food during the evacuation.
“Whitesand has really stepped up, I really take my hat off to them,” Laybourne said.
Provincial police said on Monday that Highway 527 remained closed north of Gull Bay First Nation.
As of Sunday night, the Ministry of Natural Resources said there were about 145 wildfires burning across Northwestern Ontario, including more than 50 burning out of control. About a dozen new fires were recorded by the ministry on Sunday.
