HALIFAX — As volunteer firefighter Mark Zawidzki battled eye\u002Dstinging smoke and flying embers to save homes from the Halifax wildfire, he realized its flames…
It tore through the Upper Tantallon area — a bedroom community on the northwestern outskirts of the city — leaping between tree tops and rushing around lakes.
“You go from 80 to 90 per cent visibility and decent air, to not being able to see anything, your air quality is horrendous and you’re trying to follow the hose back to the truck because they’re evacuating the area.”Article content A few hours later, Zawidzki encountered Chris Johnson, a Halifax firefighter who lived a few houses away. Johnson showed him images indicating the destruction of his own home. “So, I assumed mine was , too,” Zawidzki said.Advertisement 5Sitting in his in-laws’ apartment in Bedford, Zawidzki held back tears as he described the sense of loss now descending on him, both of the home where he raised a family and a friendly neighbourhood he treasured.
But there was too much chaos to dwell long on the disaster. “We had all the lines in place. But yet houses were burning and the wind was blowing … I felt terrible for the people standing on the road watching,” Johnson said.Article content
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