A wildfire destroyed her home, but she recovered the last remaining connection to her grandfather

A illume rain down cut down on the charred remains of twisted metal and chunks of ash tree, as genus vanessa Butler's birthday sash rippled in the wind.

This was never the way she intended to spend the day, watching a team of volunteers in hazmat suits sift through the remnants of her home in Western Bay.

"This was home. This was security. My safe space. A roof over my head. Yeah, it's hard seeing it like this. But it was home," she said.

Butler moved to Western Bay about 15 years ago, seeking a quiet place to get away from life in the city. She found a mobile home by a pond, which reminded her of the peace and serenity she felt as a kid at her grandparents' place.

Those feelings were replaced with fear and chaos on Aug. 3, when a fire in nearby Kingston began engulfing the north shore of Conception Bay. Butler was forced to flee the next day, and spent the following three weeks wondering what would be left when she was allowed to come home.

Driving through Western Bay for the first time, the carnage was unfathomable. The small, unincorporated community was one of the hardest struck, losing 86 structures to the fire.

"It's gone," she said with a tear in her eye and a lump in her throat.

Her peaceful place by the pond was destroyed.

Her most treasured possession — her grandfather's mug, the last physical connection she had to the hands that held her as a child — was missing in the rubble.

Enter Team Rubicon.

The group, led by veterans and comprised of volunteers, make it their mission to help in the wake of natural disasters like floods and fires. They've been on the ground in Conception Bay North since the evacuation orders were lifted, helping homeowners sift through ruins in hopes of finding anything of value.

"We go through the rubble and just try to find those memories, anything they can hold in their hands to keep moving forward," said Ben Brake, a strike team leader for Team Rubicon.

On Vanessa Butler's birthday, they made it their mission to find a mug adorned with geese wearing aprons. 

Out of the rubble and despair in C.B.N., a story of finding a piece of family history

The mission seemed hopeless in the beginning. The magnitude of the damage left little to be recovered. The fire burned so hot, it twisted the front door like a pretzel. Her child's first outfit, family photos, precious mementos, all gone.

But after a while, Butler spotted something happening near the place her kitchen once stood. One of the men was bent over, handling something. He popped his head up and was holding something in his hands.

"And I knew," Butler said. "That's the mug."

It had seen better days. There was a crack in the ceramic, and the handle was missing. The team kept looking, and after a few more minutes of rummaging, the handle came into view. 

Broken — yes, but nothing that can't be fixed.

"I said yesterday to the universe, I said if I could get one birthday miracle it would be to find that. And we did," Butler said.

"I don't think there's words for me to describe that to you," Brake added. "There's a lot of emotions involved. But being able to bring a bit of light to these people's families, it absolutely makes it worthwhile being on this team."

Vanessa Butler spent her birthday week camping in a covered trailer on her property, next to where her mobile home once stood. Being back by the pond, with her grandfather's mug in her hands, it was a birthday she'll never forget.

Ryan Cooke is a journalist with the Atlantic Investigative Unit, based in St. John's. He can be reached at ryan.cooke@cbc.ca.

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