‘My coronary heart sank’: N.S. photographer snaps placing picture of burnt maple leaf

Paul Gray says at first, when he noticed one thing black mendacity on his garden Sunday in Nova Scotia, he did not know what it was.

He’d already seen flurries of gray and white wildfire ash falling from the sky, however was curious in regards to the black object, so went over to have a look.

There, mendacity on straw-like grass parched from drought circumstances, was a charred however in any other case intact maple leaf.

“When I first saw the leaf, my heart sank,” stated Gray, who lives in South Greenwood, about 26 kilometres because the crow flies from the Long Lake fireplace within the Annapolis Valley.

The fireplace, which started Aug. 13, has destroyed buildings and compelled greater than 1,000 folks from their properties. As of Wednesday, it had grown to 8,278 hectares, or 82 sq. kilometres.

Nova Scotia has been experiencing very dry conditions, which have exacerbated fireplace threat and prompted a ban on certain activities in the woods.

Gray stated in a Facebook submit that the picture is “cool,” but in addition “scary and sad.”

“It’s that truly Canadian symbol of a maple leaf, that icon that we all wear proudly and are proud to be Canadian,” he stated in an interview. “To see it in such a state, to see it blackened like that, burnt to a crisp, I think that’s the moving part, the realization that we’re burning. As a country, we’re burning.”

His picture has been shared a couple of hundred occasions on Facebook, with folks commenting that it’s “iconic,” “sobering” and “heartbreaking.”

Gray stated he was shocked the leaf would journey that distance from the wildfire space.

On Sunday, high winds fanned the flames of the Long Lake fireplace, which doubled in dimension from Sunday to Monday.

“I knew it was a windy day and I knew it was going to be a bad day, but that kind of really made it sink in. It’s just amazing that it can go that far.”

Gray stated he simply snapped two fast pictures together with his cellphone and carried on together with his day.

“I could have went and dug out my digital SLR and got a nice photo lens and done a proper photo, but I didn’t. I just was on my way down to feed the chickens and figured I’d just take a quick picture of it and keep going.”

While Gray is way sufficient away from the Long Lake fireplace that he does not fear about hazard to his residence, he stated he is typically involved in regards to the wildfires and the impacts on Canadians.

“I have friends, I have co-workers who are evacuated or self-evacuated from the area. I know people who fight the fires. I think we all probably know somebody who’s in some way affected by it,” he stated.

“Not good, not good for anyone. So, you know, a lot of concern, just, yeah, saddened by the fact that we have to go through it.”