Brittany Holmgren has lived in her hometown her entire life.

Denare Beach is where she’s enjoyed the outdoors with friends, got her first job and started a family — but it’s also where she lost nearly everything.

In June, a wildfire tore through the northeast Saskatchewan village, located near the Manitoba boundary.

The 33-year-old mother’s home, along with her workplace, burned down.

“My house and my job are gone,” Holmgren said in an interview. “Everything was incinerated. There were people digging through their houses finding absolutely nothing. The windows on my car were melted down the side of my car.”

Holmgren is among many in the tight-knit village of 700 picking up the pieces after the fire destroyed half the community.

She and her two daughters, ages four and seven, moved in

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