The city applied to cover roughly 73 per cent of the cost ($25 million) but that was denied due to the total number of applicants and funding requests exceeding availability.

"I usually think of one year anniversary of things, they go away and you think about them that day," Nipawin Fire Chief Brian Starkell said. "But really that tragedy has not gone away at all."

Even when you set foot in Humboldt for the first time, it feels like you already know the place, Mike Armstrong explains.