Kamloops woman still grieves after losing possessions in fire

As families in Fort McMurray,White Rock and Saanich begin picking up the pieces after having their homes destroyed by fire, they will have to make tough decisions about the possessions they've lost.

Do they try to get any of that back? Or is it better to just let go of the past and move on?

Lori Baris faced that dilemma in 2003. She lost her Louis Creek home and almost everything she owned in the 2003 McLure-Barriere wildfire.

When the flames approached her home, the only things she could gather were some clothes and some of her photo albums, but she had to leave behind precious videos of her kids growing up.

"My heart just sank. It's irreplaceable," she told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn. "Some [albums] are still gone. There's no replacing them. And when it comes to heirlooms from our grandparents and such, there's just no replacing that."

Baris said after the damage was done, she had to catalogue and list all of the things that had been destroyed in the fire.

"A very long and hard process that took the better part of a year," she said. "Trying to remember literally every item, which of course brings up memories."

It's been over a decade since the fire, but Baris says she still grieves for some of the things she's lost.

However, she says she hasn't tried to replace them.

"I've come to look inside myself and realize I can't dwell on those memories so much so that I'm not making new ones," she said.

With so many people in Canada suffering from losses because of fires, her advice for those people is to try and do the same.

"Rejoice for the past, but don't keep looking back there. It's just not the healthiest way to live," she said.

With files from CBC Radio's On The Coast

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: After losing everything in 2003 fire, Kamloops woman has advice for Fort McMurray, others