“We are looking forward to MDS volunteers coming”

People in Denare Beach, Sask. are looking forward to the arrival of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers this year.

“When MDS offered to help, it was a no brainer,” said councillor Karen Thomson of the village, which was hit by a wildfire last summer. “There are lots of people with no insurance or under-insured. All they want is to be back home.”

Councillor Karen Thomson of the Village of Denare Beach, in front of Amisk Lake.

The village of 850 people, located 546 km northeast of Saskatoon, was destroyed June 2 by the Wolf Fire.

“The fire cut right through the village,” Thomson said, noting the village was evacuated before the fire hit.

The village’s 11 firefighters were left behind to battle the flames; they fled when the fire grew too large to be contained.

“The fire simply overcame them,” she said of their efforts. “They did all they could do.”

When residents came back to the village after the fire, they found that 230 structures—half of all buildings in the community—were gone.

A burnt car left in the aftermath of the June, 2025 fire which destroyed half of the community of Denare Beach, Sask.

“It was bleak, it looked like a war zone,” Thomson said, noting her own house was spared. “The fire came within two houses away. I don’t know how it escaped,” she said.

Since that time, residents, contractors and provincial government staff have been busy doing clean up.

“All the debris has been cleared away,” she said. “All the soil is tested, the lots are levelled and we’re ready for rebuilding.”

Dozens of cleared lots in Denare Beach, Sask., following the wildfire in June, 2025 which destroyed more than 200 homes.

Looking around, she recalls what the picturesque village on the shores of Amisk Lake used to look like.

“It was a beautiful resort community known for its fishing, surrounded by birch, poplar and spruce trees,” she said. “Now the trees are gone.”

One of two fishing lodges in the community was lost to the fire, but she hopes people will return to fish next spring—including any MDS volunteers who want to do some fishing along with rebuilding.

Before then, there is still work to be done. This includes coming up with a list of homeowners who MDS volunteers can help.

“We want to help those who truly need assistance,” Thomson said, adding that many residents who lost their homes are scattered in communities throughout the province, waiting for word about insurance and other assistance.

“We want to do anything we can to help people get back home . . . we are looking forward to MDS volunteers coming.”

For Harold Friesen, Response Coordinator for the MDS Denare Beach project, it will be an opportunity to help people get back home and to build relationships with residents.

“That is a vital aspect of how we operate as MDS,” he said of how volunteers get to know people in the places they serve. “We want to give survivors a chance to tell their stories.”

Challenges include the village’s remote location in northwestern Saskatchewan, and the short building season. “We hoped to begin in April, but they told us it’s more likely the ground will be thawed in May,” Friesen said.

People who would like to volunteer in Denare Beach can sign up to be on the waiting list at https://mds.org/volunteer-canada/. More information about the project will be made available in the next few weeks.

John Longhurst, MDS Canada writer