Teacher from N.L. hopes to return to fire-ravaged community in Manitoba

When teacher Loretta Myles left Little Grand Rapids eight days ago to return to her Newfoundland home for her sister's funeral, she didn't know that there might not be a school for her to return to.

By the next morning, May 18, a friend told her water bombers had extinguished a small fire near the community. By Saturday the fire had bounced back, and by Thursday afternoon, when Myles, originally from Terrenceville, N.L., spoke to CBC's On the Go, she'd been told that 11 houses had been destroyed.

"The teachers are in a triplex and five brand-new trailers that were brought in last year, but there's no power and there's no phone service or anything. The poles have all burned down," she said.

Little Grand Rapids is a fly-in-only community, 55 minutes from Winnipeg by air. From mid-January to mid-February a winter road allows construction and fuel supplies.

Relieved by evacuation

As difficult as it is to see the community at the heart of a wildfire, Myles said she felt some relief knowing that people have been able to get out without casualties.

"I'm in touch with the daughters of some of my friends and they were able to let me know late last night that they had all arrived out in Winnipeg," she said.

"And this morning I got a message saying it looked like all the people were out, and my director keeps calling me to tell me that, you know, that as long as there's no loss of life, everything else can be replaced in some manner, shape or form."

Her late sister, Jackie Maloney, was also a teacher in Little Grand Rapids. Myles was touched by the tribute paid to Maloney by the school before she left to come back to Newfoundland for the funeral.

"The chief and council came to me and sat with me and said, 'We will not reopen the school out of respect for Jackie until you leave the community,'" she said. "And I went to the school where they had done up a big poster and all the children's pictures that she worked with, and all the elders and children came and hugged me and made cards for me to bring back to Newfoundland for the family."

The fire hasn't discouraged Myles from returning to Little Grand Rapids.

"I've gotten to know these people, and they're really good people," said Myles, who's the resource co-ordinator for the school's special-needs program. "If there is a school to go back to, I will be going back. I have a ticket for Wednesday."