Paul Gray says at first, when he saw something black lying on his lawn Sunday in Nova Scotia, he didn't know what it was.

He'd already noticed flurries of grey and white wildfire ash falling from the sky, but was curious about the black object, so went over to take a look.

There, lying on straw-like grass parched from drought conditions, was a charred but otherwise intact maple leaf.

"When I first saw the leaf, my heart sank," said Gray, who lives in South Greenwood, about 26 kilometres as the crow flies from the Long Lake fire in the Annapolis Valley.

The fire, which began Aug. 13, has destroyed buildings and forced more than 1,000 people from their homes. As of Wednesday, it had grown to 8,278 hectares , or 82 square kilometres.

Nova Scotia has been experiencing very dry conditi

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