The order that Noelle Drimmie and her family thought would never came was given at the end of the school day.
“We sort of went into adrenaline mode and we put those bags in the car,” she recalls. “You get cash, you get gas, and you just hope for the best.”
Drimmie, along with her husband and two children, left Flin Flon in a convey of cars filled with friends and neighbours as wildfires bore down on the community. Now settled in with family friends in Winnipeg, Drimmie, like thousands of others, is anxiously waiting for news and updates on their home.
Listen to Noelle Drimmie's full conversation with Nolan Kehler on Morning Light
Amidst their hasty exit, Drimmie, a photographer in the community, made sure that she grabbed her camera gear. “I just don’t know how I would get along with it,” she says, “especially in a situation like this.”
Drimmie's specialty is landscape shots that capture the beauty of her part of the province, which have been displayed at the 210 Gallery here in Winnipeg along with local showings. On her way out of town, Drimmie captured the changing landscape, sure to be permanently altered by the blazes.
“It’s a very stark contrast,” she says. “The lush green that we’re used to at this time of year and the sparkling water and the majestic sunsets and sunrises... to see everything in a cloud of ash and have the sun sort of blocked out and have this eerie orange haze for everything.”
Images of everyday life were also marred by the eerie nature of the impending inferno. Drimmie, who is also a teacher, was taking graduation photos and was struck by the surrealness that permeated a mundane picture. “In between shots, I would peer out the door because we could see the fire,” Drimmie explains. “I have these galleries of, you know, very formal graduation pictures and people looking their best and then, interspersed in that photo reel, is smoke.”
Despite the harrowing nature of Flin Flon’s changed landscape, Drimmie notes that artists in the community are doing their best to make beautiful works out of devastating circumstances. “I know several artists who, especially after a burn, they’ll go out to the burn and they’ll paint or they’ll draw or they’ll sketch and create their own beauty out of that,” she says.
“I suspect that I will be among those looking at the different sites and seeing how our landscape has changed.”
Beautiful art is already been borne out tragedy as the evacuees console and coordinate together in Winnipeg. A gathering of displaced people met in Kildonan Park to share time together. At the gathering, the sounds of “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie – recently performed at a Flin Flon school – rang through the trees, showcasing the community’s resilience and hope.
