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Fort McMurray mayor warns returning residents of 'shocking' destruction

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On Wednesday morning the return of the first wave of wildfire evacuees began in Fort McMurray and surrounding communities.

Mobile users follow our live coverage here.

A dozen Postmedia reporters and photographers are in Fort McMurray to capture the words and thoughts of people returning home.

Check here throughout the day for updates on the re-entry process.


5:47 p.m.: In Their Own Words: “I think we’re one of the lucky ones so far”

Allan Fedun, 35, parts technician, lower townsite

We knew our house was standing. I knew the power was off, so I was expecting a rotten fridge — which I did get. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot of smell of smoke in the house that you can tell. It’s overpowered by the rotting food, I guess. Other than that, it looks like they tried to access through the back door, maybe just for security purposes, to check for pets and whatever else. Other than that, it seems pretty good.

(The power) just came on as we were here.

The stench of rotting food forced Fort McMurray resident Allan Fedun Jr. to remove the refrigerator out of his home in Fort McMurray on June 1, 2016.

The stench of rotting food forced Fort McMurray resident Allan Fedun Jr. to remove the refrigerator out of his home in Fort McMurray on June 1, 2016. Larry Wong / POSTMEDIA NETWORK

So far we’ve looked inside the house, in the garage, walked outside the building, exterior wise. Checked in with some of my neighbours to see what they’ve come across, how they’re doing. Apparently all doors have been tried to be accessed.

I think we’re one of the lucky ones so far.

Most of (the city) is what I expected off the bat, so it wasn’t a big shock. It’s starting to get nice and green around town now. There’s a lot of trees missing. There is a lot of devastation in some areas. But we’re pretty fortunate down here. In a way, we’re lucky. But it’s still not liveable at this time, because of the fridge and the rotting food.

Were only here for the day. We left at about 6 this morning to get up here. As soon as we’re done, we’ll lock up and head back to Fort Saskatchewan (where my parents live).

There’s going to be 88,000 people looking to start an insurance claim. So, you don’t want to fall too far behind.

We had a lot of phone calls saying, ‘The garage is on fire, the garage has burnt down,’ so, it was pretty skeptical at first, until the online pictures came out, and then we knew everything was fine, the garage was fine.

I don’t need to be here, per se. I work for Syncrude, so they offering bussing and camp in the meantime, until Fort Mac goes back to normal.

5:40 p.m.: In Their Own Words: “When I know I can help someone, I feel that I can use that experience”

Michaela Magee, 19, volunteer firefighter, Saprae Creek

The first day, me and my dad and our fire team, we came down here (to the lower townsite) and we’re fighting the fire. We also fought over in Gregoire where the RV dumping station is. I stayed on the job for 10 hours, then I left on the highway with my mom and my little brother to make sure they were okay.

Then I left with my boyfriend to go to Lac La Biche.

I came back two weeks later to help put out hotspots.

I’ve been a volunteer firefighter since March 2014.

When this came, it was just over and beyond (my experience). It was scary.

My dad has been a volunteer firefighter since 2005. He was full firefighter out at site, then switched over to heavy duty, and told me, ‘Now that you’re 18, you can get onto the team.’

I’ve been thinking about taking my EMR (emergency medical responder) and then hopefully I can pursue that as my career.

(During the fire) I was still learning. They would tell me to grab the first aid bag, or they would tell me to unravel hose.

At the start, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just want to leave,’ because it gives you this adrenaline rush. ‘What’s going to happen to me if I’m stuck here? What if the fire barricades us all?’ Then, on another line, if I can help and save my town, which I’ve lived in since I was a little kid, and it kind of makes me feel a little better.

(I learned) how to turn on the extinguishers. What to actually do in an emergency. How to help people get out. Especially when you’re trying to get your families out, grab the actual stuff that you need.

We stayed mostly in Saprae Creek (last) week and mostly cleaned up the trucks. We’d always get these calls saying that we need water to put out hotspots. We filled these bladders — it’s this huge plastic pool — fill it up to the top, and run hoses down to the (forest firefighters). They’d start putting hotspots out right in the forest. We’d take care of hotspots that were around people’s housing.

(Forest firefighters) have a really hard job. To me, that’s a lot of work. Those guys do a lot.

4:30 p.m.: Some shops remain shuttered as Fort McMurray re-entry continues

Although the doors of Fort McMurray’s Peter Pond mall were unlocked Wednesday, just two cellphone stores were open for business.

Most shops were shuttered and dark, and Fort McMurray’s only escalators at a standstill. Mary Grace Gavino was one of a few people in the two-storey shopping centre, scrubbing, cleaning, and restocking the New York Fries franchise restaurant she co-owns and manages.

May 2 had been a restock day for the store. A lot of food went straight to the garbage after she and her co-owners arrived Wednesday to begin preparing it to re-open. They tallied the damages, and cleaned the store from ceiling to floor.

Serving food with a boil water advisory in effect is a major challenge, she said. Then, there are the workers. Most of them are in Edmonton, and several are renters, waiting to hear from their landlords before they can return to town and to work at the store. It will be many days before the restaurant re-opens, she said.

“I get the sense that the community will be back on its feet sooner than later,” she said.

Many stores and restaurants on downtown’s Franklin Street had their “Open” signs illuminated, but doors were locked, or no one was inside.

At Superstore, Kelowna-based district manager John Binns has led a group of around 80 workers in the “monumental” task of completely emptying, cleaning, and restocking the sprawling box store in seven days.

Usually, it takes six weeks to set up a new Superstore, he said.

Everything in the building, except canned goods, had to go, according to health and safety rules. Clothes, housewares, food, and even bottled drinks bathed in smoke all became garbage. A clean-up company contracted by the store hauled out bag after bag of damaged goods. Workers did air quality and surface tests for contaminants.

The store re-opened for business Wednesday with a gleaming produce section and employees busily replenishing pharmacy and grocery shelves.

Originally from Fort McMurray, Binns smiled when he talked about the teamwork and camaraderie he felt during the long days of work.

“They wanted to get it open,” he said.

— Janet French

3:55 p.m.: Emotional toll and challenges in Fort McMurray to increase over the week: Blake

Officials hailed the first day of re-entry to Fort McMurray a “huge success” as more than 7,500 residents returned home with patience and optimism. 

“It goes without saying that today represents a huge positive step in the recovery phase of the process and is very much what we’ve been working towards,” said the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo’s director of emergency management Bob Couture.

Everything went according to plan, he said, with no traffic issues or lineups backing up services.

 

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo's director of Emergency Management Bob Couture.

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo’s director of Emergency Management Bob Couture. Ian Kucerak / Edmonton Sun

 

“Everything was orderly. …It has been a huge success so far and we want to continue that,” he said.

Couture thanked business owners and essential service operators– from banks to grocery stores and gas stations– for sacrificing their own needs for those of their community. They “set the path and the tone” to get the city up-and-running, he said. 

Cpl. George Cameron, with the Wood Buffalo RCMP detachment, said there were no reports of looting as of Wednesday afternoon and people were obeying the blockades around the restricted areas of Abasand, Waterways and Beacon Hill, the hardest hit neighbourhoods.

Police patrols were beefed up, but because traffic was lighter than anticipated, a few officers had time to wave and welcome people in at the entrance overpass along with a group of firefighters.

There are 200 local RCMP officers working out of the detachment in Fort McMurray and an additional 70 officers on-hand from across the province, Cameron said.

While the first day of the voluntary re-entry process went smoothly, Premier Rachel Notley told reporters at a news conference that “today is not the end of the story.”

“It is not a return to normal life and it’s not yet a celebration, there is still a lot of work to recover and rebuild Wood Buffalo, this will be the work of years, not weeks,” she said.

 

Fort McMurray First Nation Chief Ron Kreutzer (left) hugs Mayor Melissa Blake after a press conference at Fire Hall 5 in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Wednesday June 1, 2016.

Fort McMurray First Nation Chief Ron Kreutzer (left) hugs Mayor Melissa Blake after a press conference at Fire Hall 5 in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Wednesday June 1, 2016. Ian Kucerak / Edmonton Sun

 

She again thanked first responders and spoke of the safe and “miraculous” evacuation of nearly all 90,000 residents when the wildfire swept through the city and surrounding areas at the beginning of May, with the exception of two young people killed in a collision while fleeing south on Highway 881.

Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake said she expects the emotional toll and challenges to increase over the week as residents return to some of the more heavily damaged locations. 

“If you go into the community of Timberlea, for example, next to nothing is going to show a difference for them, pretty easy to go back. When you go into Stone Creek it’s like a meteor struck in the middle… It will be pretty hard not to see that and have some reaction,” she said.

She told residents to seek mental health support if they need it, but urged them to try to focus on moving forward and looking toward the future.

“We will rebuild and we will be better because of it,” she said. 

— Otiena Ellwand

 

 

3:12 p.m.: About 30 insurance adjusters expected in Fort McMurray to assess damage

Economical Insurance has mobilized a catastrophe response team for residents inside Fort McMurray.

Policy holders can speak with adjusters to assess their damage claims at a makeshift command centre at Stonebridge Hotel, 9713 Hardin St.

“Our strategy is to go and meet with every policy holder and assess the damages to their home,” said Trevor  Brick, western region claims manager for Economical Insurance. “If they reported a claim, we’ll go to their home and assess any damage they have.”
An information booklet provided by the Alberta government hangs on the door of a Fort McMurray home.

The insurance company reported losses between $35 and $45 million in reinsurance coverage and reinstatement premiums because of the wildfire.

The initial, pre-tax loss estimate is based primarily on claims reported to date, Brick added.

Few residents were at the command centre Wednesday morning, but more are expected to come when more parts of the city are opened to residents as part of the phased re-entry plan.

Around 30 Economical Insurance adjusters are expected to be in the city this week to survey damages with the policy holder physically present or with their written consent, Brick said.

“Due to the sensitivity of all of this we’re going to respect all of our policy holders and wait till they’re back here to assess their damages,” he said. “They honestly should be the first one checking their home and assessing for damages.”

The company will also cover insurance claims for “white goods,” which includes refrigerators and other kitchen appliances.

Many Fort McMurray residents are tossing their fridges containing rotting food onto their front lawns to be collected by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

Insurers will work with the municipality in the coming days to work out a plan for disposing the glut of smelly fridges.

“It’ll be a co-ordinated effort with repsect to how that’s going to be done,” Brick said.

— Ameya Charnalia

2:56 p.m.: Pyrenees puppy joins family as they return to Fort McMurray

Fort McMurray resident Walter Cheecham said “it’s awesome” to be home but he’s got some landscaping work ahead of him.

“I’ve got a lot of grass to cut and I’ve only got a push-mower,” Cheecham said laughing.

He and his family left May 3, just before the mandatory evacuation.

A week later he came back to feed some of the pets left behind and to help empty some neighbours’ freezers, filling more than 60 garbage bags with food that had to be thrown out.

“It had just started to thaw,” he said, but added he didn’t want to take a chance with food that had gone off.

The move saved fridges from being ruined but meant food had to go to the dump.

But not all was lost from the evacuation. In fact, a new member of the family that came with them home in the end – a 10-week-old male Pyrenees puppy he named Phoenix.

“He come out of the ashes,” said Cheecham.

Bored while living away from home, he and his wife visited a dog breeder.

“If it wasn’t for the fire I would have never got him,” Cheecham said.

Phoenix may have some work ahead of him as well, though, as a warning signal to its new family.

Because of the food being dropped off in the dump up the road, the area has become a hot spot for black bears.

But for now Phoenix is just doing what the rest of the family is doing — making himself at home.

— David Lazzarino

2:08p.m.: Refrigerator stench overpowers smell of smoke in some Fort McMurray homes

It was nearly lunchtime in Fort McMurray. Eating anything from Allan Fedun’s fridge was out of the question.

The fire’s damaging path ends just metres from his home in the lower townsite. The 35-year-old parts technician doesn’t know if his house smells like smoke because the pungent stench of his refrigerator overpowers all other odours.

The three pounds of hamburger he had stashed in his freezer added a particularly funky smell to the appliance, which has spent most of the last month without power.

He was afraid to open it.


“I think something might crawl out if I do.”

Fedun and his father, Allan Sr., removed the screen door and front door of their home to wrestle the fridge out onto the sidewalk Wednesday morning. The family plans to stash the appliance in the garage to avoid attracting bears and other scavenging animals.

Fedun and his parents made the 5 1/2 hour drive to Fort McMurray from Fort Saskatchewan Wednesday to meet an insurance adjuster and get their damage assessment started as quickly as possible. They’ll head back to Fort Saskatchewan tonight. Fedun thinks it may be another month until he can live in his house, which just regained electricity Wednesday morning.

1:56 p.m.: Almost 7,500 Fort McMurray residents return in first wave of re-entry

About 7,500 residents have returned to Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities in the first wave of re-entry, after fleeing a destructive wildfire that swept through the region nearly a month ago, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking to media at Fire Hall 5 in Fort McMurray, Notley said that despite all the challenges of the wildfire, the safe evacuation of nearly all residents, with the exception of two young people killed in a motor vehicle collision while fleeing, was “miraculous”.


“Tens of thousands of people were successfully evacuated from remote communities in a very short time,” Notley said.

Notley urged returning residents to go to one of the eight information centres set up around the city, and said information packets had been delivered to 30,000 homes. She also said that mental health are roaming throughout the community to offer supportive services.

The premier was joined by Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake, who warned that people returning and seeing the destruction waged by the wildfire will find it “shocking”, but urged people to focus on moving forward and the future.

“We will rebuild and we will be better because of it” Blake said.

1:00 p.m.: Serious medical emergencies have staff worried in Fort McMurray

For nearly three weeks, Fort McMurray’s medical care has been available out of tents, staffed by a skeleton crew of doctors, nurses and technicians. Frequently buzzed by low-flying helicopters, Dr. Qaiser Rizvi jokes “it has a complete MASH vibe.”

The makeshift hospital, of course, is more sophisticated than that. Sprawled across 4,750-square-feet in the parking lot of the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre, the tents hold a trauma room, X-ray lab and a resuscitation bay. A CT scanner unit is in a trailer. Eight stretchers plus a pair of observation beds can handle up to 35 visits per day.

There are two doctors, seven nurses, a respiratory technician, lab technician and a crew of administrators, managers, supervisors and paramedics. Planes and ambulances are on standby to bring serious patients to Edmonton.

“The medications are stocked, the equipment and staff are ready to handle what comes next,” says Rizvi. “It’s different working like this, but we’ve got everything we need for essentials, minus a few bells and whistles.”

Rizvi arrived at the Urgent Care Centre, as the tent hospital is officially known as, on Sunday, three days before the city opened for the general public. By noon, he had treated patients concerned about their medications, suffering from chest pains and a kidney stone.

“Just the typical walk-in clinic stuff,” he says.

While he is confident in the ability to treat basic care, the thought of a serious medical emergency has the staff worried. The plan is to keep the impromptu hospital open until the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre reopens, with most services expected to be ready around June 21. Alberta Health Services is still waiting to hear from other local doctors when they plan to return.

“There will be some challenges working in this environment, but we’ve been preparing for this,” he says. “It’s nice seeing the town start picking up today. But a lot of things can happen.”

12:49 p.m.: Anzac residents pulling together for returning families

Seeing the welcome home banners attached to the lampposts in Anzac gave Christine Fotty, 57, a lump in her throat.

“I got really choked up. I’d never been welcomed to my own home,” she said. “Our homes are standing, so what more can we say, we’re so happy.”

Fotty said she knows the people whose homes were damaged by the wildfire have a difficult time ahead, but the community will support them.

“We’ll be there to help and I’m sure anyone else in Anzac will. …Just say when you’re ready and we’ll be there,” Fotty said.

 

 

12:40 p.m.: Fort McMurray child health care worker turns attention to returning families

Jeffery Cree got back to his home in Fort McMurray First Nation a few days before the rush.

A maternal child health worker, he offered his skills that normally go to working with parents to optimize the health of youngsters under six years old to make the return home for local families more comfortable.

“There are some families from the community here . . . they’re very isolated,” he said, adding many people will need emotional and social support along with the staples of food and water.


The band office sent people into homes a few days into the fire to remove food from freezers and replace them with baking soda, a move Cree said gave him a bittersweet experience.

“I just went shopping the day before we left. I had roasts and a turkey, there was about $500 worth of food I had to toss,” he said.

He added he’s glad he has a home to return to.

“It was mixed emotions. I was happy to come back home but at the same time I was afraid to open my door to see what kind of state my house was in,” Cree said, adding his hope was that the power going out didn’t keep his sump pump from working to protect from basement flooding.

“I came home and it was the way we left it,” he said with a tired, but relieved smile. “My grass was a little long.”

 

12:25 p.m.: Emotional Fort McMurray residents find city slowly springing back to life

Residents returning to their homes in Fort McMurray are tackling stinking refrigerators and grass grown tall and infested with dandelions.

A steady stream of traffic is moving into the northern Alberta oilsands hub as thousands who fled a wildfire a month ago return to see what’s left.

Fenton Lovell says he cried as he drove in and his eyes teared up again when he opened his fridge.

“Fort McMurray strong!” he joked Wednesday morning.

He’s getting the house cleaned and ready so his wife and twin babies can return from Newfoundland. After boosting the dead battery in his pickup truck, he grabbed a welcome kit out of his mailbox and put a sign reading “natural gas required” in his front window.


Pilar Ramirez spent the night sleeping in the back of a truck in Anzac, about 40 minutes southeast of Fort McMurray.

She got to work cleaning as soon as she got into her downtown house, which she shares with co-workers at a concrete company.

Her reaction when she first opened the door: “Oh, it’s so disgusting!”

“It smelled terrible, the food. Flies everywhere — and big ones. I said, ’Oh, my God, what happened here?”’

One of Mike Maloney’s first tasks was to mow the messy lawn in front of his home while his wife and three kids cleaned inside.

“Everybody’s happy but … it’s sad to see what did burn and some loss there. It’s tragic for those people. But I think, all in all, everybody will survive.”

People driving in on the only highway into the area have found the forest on both sides blackened about half an hour out of town. The devastation is apparent from the road just inside city limits and a strong smell of smoke hangs in the air.

Billboards that read “Safe Resilient Together” and “We Are Here. We Are Strong” greet people as they drive in. A huge Canadian flag hangs between the extended ladders of two fire trucks parked on a bridge over the road.

The fire destroyed 2,400 structures, nearly 10 per cent of the city, when it ripped through last month and forced more than 80,000 residents to flee.


Bob Couture, director of emergency management for the Wood Buffalo municipality, said he expects between 14,000 and 15,000 people to return Wednesday — the first day of what organizers have planned as a staged re-entry.

“It’s going to be an emotional event when we have those first cars pulling back into the community, because we can all remember when this community left on the evacuation. It was pretty dramatic, but now it’s going to be, hopefully, a joyous event,” Couture said Tuesday.

The Red Cross is prepared to bus in as many as 2,000 residents who don’t have their own cars. Donations to the relief agency sit at $112 million, but officials plan to update that figure this week.

Returning residents are being warned that it won’t be business as usual and to bring with them two weeks worth of food, water and prescription medication as crews continue to work to get basic services restored.

Crews have been working to get critical businesses such as banks, grocery stores and pharmacies running again. Supplies of some items may be limited in the beginning and the government says some things may need to be rationed.

“We would not do this if it was not safe to do so,” Couture said.

The re-entry is happening in phases this week. Only people in the Lower Townsite, Anzac, Fort McMurray First Nation and Gregoire Lake Estates are being allowed to come back on Wednesday.

The RCMP say they will have a helicopter in the air to monitor traffic and police kept a close watch on the speed of drivers as they headed home.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley was planning to be in Fort McMurray when the first evacuees return.

“It’s not like, ’OK, you’re home. See ya. Bye bye,”’ she said.

“We’re still with them, and I think it’s really important that they hear that from us.”

— Chris Purdy and Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

 

 

11:01 a.m.: First Nation chief calls on government to do more to prepare for disasters

The Fort McMurray First Nation is still relatively intact but not because of provincial or federal supports, says chief Ron Kreutzer.

“You’re really fighting for your land,” said Kreutzer, who only left the area for a day after the initial evacuation.

After that, he and some other residents returned, got their hands on some bulldozers and began building fire breaks around the community of 350 people. Meanwhile, others went into homes and emptied out fridges and freezers so people wouldn’t return to rotten food and destroyed fridges.

Kreutzer said fire crews were busy with other areas but he wasn’t about to stand by and do nothing.

“The only land you have you don’t want to see it go up in flames, he said.

They had five water trucks ready to protect homes as well.

“We never got any help from Fort McMurray, we never got any help from the fire department, we did our own thing,” he said, adding he would have been happy to have at least gotten a fire report so they could have known what was coming toward them.

They cleared 300 metres of trees and brush around the entire reserve, something he feels will help in future as well.

He’d still like to see the federal and provincial governments do more to prepare for these kinds of disasters.

“I’d like to see some kind of a plan, even for the future,” he said.

— David Lazzarino

10:26 a.m.: ‘We’re going to be bigger, better, stronger’

Anji Wood, 36, was so excited and anxious to see her 18-month-old home near Anzac in Gregoire Lake Estates Wednesday morning, her stomach was coiled in knots.

“We know that it is livable, that the structure is standing, what lies inside is another story, but I think we’ll be okay,” she said, clutching a plastic bag with the government’s re-entry booklet inside.

She and her husband, Lee Wood, 44, both work as mechanics in downtown Fort McMurray. On May 3, they “drove directly through fire” south to their home, but they didn’t stop there. After experiencing that scare, they decided not to wait until the fire spread. They left in their camper and were part of a throng of evacuees who sheltered in Athabasca, thinking they’d be gone for only a few days.

Anji said the first week was “absolutely chaotic” with emotions running high.

“There was so much crying, and just frustration and sadness and fear, but the last three weeks, just seeing everybody in this country pull together and seeing all the support we had, and the town of Athabasca, where we were, was amazing. We doubled their population overnight,” she said.

The Woods said being away from home made them miss their community. Going forward, there is fear and many unknowns, Anji said.

“We’re obviously going to be bigger, better, stronger. But it’s going to be a process to get there… We have a pretty strong community,” she said.

“I just want to be home and I want normal. I want normal back again really bad.”

— Otiena Ellwand

 

10:17 a.m.: Returning resident turns to bible for comfort

When Russell Boston, 32, arrived at his Alberta Drive home, he found the municipality had left a re-entry guide at his doorstep.

But it’s a bible and a self-help book that are bringing him the most comfort.

An evangelical Christian, Boston has spent much of his first morning back in Fort McMurray reading a booklet titled “What happens when your world changes.”

Russell Boston sits on the front steps of his home moments after returning as residents re-enter fire-ravaged Fort McMurray, Alta., on Wednesday, June 1, 2016.

It’s published by the American evangelist preacher Billy Graham and has brought some comfort, but has left him with more questions than answers.

The obvious question, “How can God let things like this happen,” has never left his mind. His family has accepted the best answer is to accept they will likely never know.

“We don’t know why these things happen, but we have comfort knowing God will help Fort McMurray rebuild,” he says.

For now, his wife and two-year-old daughter will remain at a dormitory at the University of Alberta.

Boston will spend the week cleaning the house and throwing out rotten food. He hopes to start working again as a bank specialist with ATB Financial.

But until his family joins him later this month, Boston’s mind will be racing with theological questions he knows will never be answered.

At the same time, how can God be implicated when these immensely complicated human systems prove fragile?

After all, humanity, with all its faults, is no less God’s creation than the law that fire consumes dry material, whether they be trees or homes.

“What happens to the friends we still don’t see here? There are people all over the country we may never see again,” he said.

“There are so many uncertainties, but I believe these booms will uplift my family’s spirits. I believe God won’t leave us.”

— Vince McDermott

10:06 a.m.: In Their Own Words: “It all just kind of happened so quickly”

Ryan Clarke, 23, commerce student, MacEwan University, lives in lower townsite

It started off pretty quiet. We all thought things were getting better. At around 12 noon, the smoke in the distance started looking fairly ominous and they had started issuing an advisory and voluntary evacuation orders for certain areas. We all kind of knew we had to get out of town. I had just moved back from Edmonton, where I’m going to MacEwan, six days prior, so I was kind of reluctant to move all my stuff back again. I underestimated how long we’d be gone, and I packed a couple pairs of pyjamas and a shirt and two pairs of socks, and that was about it. Kind of wasn’t ready for how long we were going to be gone, that’s for sure.

It all just kind of happened so quickly. When I left my house here, the side of Abasand was all on fire. I got my car out of here because it was raining hot embers and the police were kind of telling us, ‘Get the hell out.’

I was just kind of thinking it would blow over in a day or two and I’d go out to stay at the camps, but around 7 o’clock, I saw downtown was on fire. I was up in Dickinsfield at that point, and that was almost on fire. And Abraham’s Land adjacent to that was on fire. At that point, I kind of realized that I was probably not going to be back here any time soon, and that I should go south instead of north so I wasn’t stranded.

When I drove by on the highway, I saw my aunt’s house in flames. But, I’d got a call from my cousins about an hour and a half before that their house was up already.

I ended up having to ditch my car on the side of the highway near (Highway) 881 because I ran out of gas and there was no gas in the next 300-kilometre radius. I ended up getting picked up by my step dad who was caring for my aunt, who he had to pick up at the hospital.

We got a hotel (in Edmonton) for the first week or so, then bounced around a few friends’ houses. Then, my parents ended up getting an apartment lease short-term.

We thought (our house) was burned for the first couple of days after, just because we had so many people text us as they were driving by on the highway there, and they saw our crescent up in flames, “So sorry about your house.” People are expressing their condolences towards us, and we’re like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s gone.’ We were pretty worried the first few days. I know my mum was in tears and very worried for about a week until we actually had confirmation that our house was standing and that it was in tact.

I was very glad that my stuff was okay because I would have found that fairly ironic that I moved here six days ago and all my stuff burnt and I’m back in Edmonton where I came from, with nothing. But, just relief, obviously.

I got on the highway about three this morning. There was no lineup (at the roadblock).

I was only coming (back today) to grab a few things, and we weren’t really sure how much smoke damage there’d be, and what we’d be doing going through insurance, and whether or not I should be residing here or not.

— Janet French

 

 

9:45 a.m.: Evacuees assess damage, hope to return to “normal life”

Even though the siding of Kevin Tremblay’s home was damaged, and he lost a shed and a couple of quads when the wildfire spread through Anzac, the shuttle bus owner said he’s just relieved to be home. The quads can be replaced and the damage repaired, he said, adding that he’s grateful for the firefighters who managed to spare so much.

Now he and his family, who have lived in Anzac for 17 years, are hoping to resume some semblance of a “normal life,” starting with cleaning their yard and home. Tremblay, 47, said the “emotional roller coaster” caused by the wildfire and mass evacuation will bring the community closer. “The community is going to come together. People are going to help each other more,” he predicted.

When he approached Anzac at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, his first thought was how much greener the forest was than he’d anticipated. And when he saw his home for the first time, he said he was flooded with relief. “It’s still there, home.”

Not all evacuees have returned to find their homes still standing.

On Crescent Heights in Fort McMurray’s lower townsite, one house is reduced to mangled metal and ash. Next door, a fenced-off house that appears in tact from the front is shredded at the back, insulation and lumber spilling out onto the lawn.

Ryan Clarke, 23, who lives two doors away from the flattened house, said his aunt, uncle, and three cousins lived there.

On May 3, the lifelong McMurrayite was fleeing town on the highway behind their house when he saw it burning.

“I thought, ‘Holy eff, I hope they grabbed their cats.’ They had two little kittens. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. Other than that, it was just, ‘Wow.’ “

Houses on either side of the badly damaged properties have yellow signs taped to the front doors reading “Restricted use: Occupying these premises in restricted ares without proper precautions may result in personal injuries.”

The signs say assessors have found damage that will “restrict the use and occupancy,” and tell residents to go to one of the information centres for details.

Another man whose family owns two houses on the crescent, but didn’t want to give his name, said neither of the houses have power, as a nearby electrical transformer was consumed by the fire.

In the backyards of his houses, a burned out car and boat are covered in white ash. A white pile of twisted metal suggests a shed was once there with an ATV and other equipment inside.

The keyhole crescent is adjacent is across Highway 63 from most of the fire damage. A sliver of forest between two of the damaged houses has been reduced to bare, black trunks and a layer of soot that sinks underfoot.

Down the street, each house has a plastic-wrapped booklet on the front stoop or placed in the mailbox filled with information for residents coming home.

As most front yards boast knee-high weeds and grass, one man’s first priority was to mow his lawn.

-Otiena Ellwand and Janet French

 

9:30 a.m.: Fort McMurray First Nation prepares to welcome returning residents

Turning the lights back on in an entire community is tough, even for a place with only 350 residents.

Skids of food and water were being arranged Wednesday morning outside the Fort McMurray First Nation band office in preparation for the potential return of residents.

Administration was busy organizing return packages while Health Canada employees prepared to do water testing.

The community evacuated when the fires spread south of the city but administrators managed to continue to offer information to evacuees after setting up a makeshift operation out of the Super 8 hotel in Fort Saskatchewan.

-Dave Lazzarino

9:15 a.m.: Evacuees get first look at homes razed by wildfire

Some evacuees are seeing the wreckage of their homes for the first time since fleeing the city on May 3.

Diane Tremblay, 52, saw the charred remains of her neighbourhood, Beacon Hill, on the way to her brother’s house in downtown Fort McMurray Wednesday.

“Coming down Beacon Hill earlier, I was crying,” said Tremblay, who works as a labourer at the Construction and General Workers’ Union Local 92. “When I saw the guys up on the roadway there, they were waving, so I honked the horn and saluted them.”


“It’s good to see them welcoming us back to the community.”

After many sleepless nights as an evacuee in Edmonton, Tremblay, who has been in Fort McMurray for most of her life, is ready to start over by finding a new home and getting a job with a local clean-up crew.

After seeing many changes in Fort McMurray over the years, she feels optimistic about the community coming together to rebuild in the days ahead.

This is a time for residents to help each other out, so the community can “come back stronger,” she said.

-Ameya Charnalia

 

9 a.m.

A line-up to register with Red Cross at the information centre at the Fort McMurray Composite High School is already beginning to snake around the gymnasium.

Tables of everything from food to insurance information have been set up to assist the returning evacuees.

Residents can help themselves to fresh and dried fruit, pasta and get assistance at booths set up by Insurance Bureau of Canada, Alberta Health Services, Shaw, Telus and ATCO.

Re-entry centres are open across the municipality.

-Vince McDermott

8:30 a.m.

Jay Reonel was one of the first people to return to his Pond Crescent home in downtown Fort McMurray Wednesday morning.

After nearly four weeks on the road, the 31-year-old breathed a sigh of relief to find everything in his home untouched.

The only thing bothering him was the pungent odour of rotting food coming from his fridge, which was full of meat and fish the day he was evacuated on May 3.

The first thing he did was clear the kitchen, tape up the fridge and put it out on the front lawn for the municipality to pick up.

“I’m happy to be back, but it will affect our work,” said Reonel, who arrived in Canada from the Philippines two years ago to work as a cook at a local Fort McMurray restaurant.

His street remained unharmed by the leaping flames and billowing smoke that clung to much of the city like a thick fog in the days following the evacuation, but insurance adjusters roamed the street to assess any possible smoke damage Wednesday morning.

It was on the drive back into the city, seeing the charred remains of homes in Abasand and Beacon Hill, that the extent of the damage began to sink in for Reonel, who believes Fort McMurray won’t be the same place in the coming days, weeks and months ahead.

“It’s just too sad to see the streets all black,” he said. I was really not expecting that kind of trees, all burned.”

Although he’s optimistic about resuming his job, Reonel doesn’t think it will be easy for temporary foreign workers like him to find work in Fort McMurray, which draws people from across the world to work service jobs in northern Alberta oil and gas capital.

“I’m thinking that it’s not becoming good for us,” Reonel said. “These times really we’re not seeing anything about cooking anything for the people of Fort Mac again.”

The community of Anzac was quiet early Wednesday, but cleaning efforts had already begun.

Taped up refrigerators were set out on lawns, and ashen ruins of structures were fenced off.

Booklets filled with re-entry information have been hung on door knobs, ready to greet residents as they return.

-Otiena Ellwand and Ameya Charnalia

8:15 a.m.

Signs of a city that left in a hurry are everywhere. Plastic garbage and recycling cans still line the streets in the neighbourhood near the hospital, waiting to be pulled up from the curb. Grass on many lawns is nearly knee-high after a month left unmowed.

Red signs have been tacked to the doors of homes that are too unsafe for residents to re-enter.

Ryan Clarke returned to his own downtown home, which is still standing, but said his aunt and uncle’s house two doors down has been destroyed.

Clarke said when he fled during the evacuation, he could see his aunt and uncle’s house on fire, and assumed his was gone too.

-Janet French and Sarah O’Donnell

8:00 a.m.

John and Deanna Smith were among the first people back to their downtown neighbourhood near the hospital Wednesday morning.

They pulled into their Bell Crescent bungalow at about 5:30 a.m. after staying overnight in Wandering River.

“It’s going to be busy for the next couple of days,” John said, running through a to-do list that included connecting with their insurance company, cleaning the house tending to the yard.

The return comes with mixed emotions, Deanna said. They were relieved to be in their home and find it secure after nearly a month away. But they also felt for others’ losses as they drove past damaged neighbourhoods such as Waterways, where some of the destruction and burned out homes are visible from Highway 63.

Once their house is in order, the couple said they want to be there for friends and neighbours who need help. “There are a lot of good people here,” John said. “You could see this when everything went down, everybody came together.”

Fort McMurray has treated them well since they moved to the city from Newfoundland several years ago, Deanna said. They want to be part of the rebuilding. “Hopefully we move forward as a community,” she said.

-Sarah O’Donnell

7:45 a.m.

Insurance adjusters are already on the ground in downtown Fort McMurray, checking for smoke damage.

For many returning evacuees, one of the first steps to making their homes habitable again is to remove refrigerators and freezers that are full of spoiled food.

For others, the fix won’t be quite as simple. Police have sealed off access to Waterways, one of the neighbourhoods with significant fire damage.

-Vincent McDermott and Ameya Charnalia

7 a.m.

A haze of smoke hangs in the air as residents of Fort McMurray step back into their homes for the first time in nearly a month.

After weeks away, people are beginning to think about how to deal with issues like refrigerators full of spoiled food. Roderick Mamuri plans to boil vinegar to get rid of the rotten food smell.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo took to social media in the hours leading up to the planned re-entry to give recommendations and information about how best to return.

The municipality advised residents of rental homes to communicate with the property owner before returning to their units.

6:45 a.m.

Police barricades that previously blocked access to downtown Fort McMurray were gone early Wednesday to prepare for the expected re-entry of thousands of residents.

6 a.m.

Truck driver Mike Tompkins was one of the first residents to arrive — and wait — to re-enter Fort McMurray when he pulled into the check-in point at 11:40 p.m. Tuesday after leaving Belleville, Ont., Sunday.

“I figured midnight would be (June) first,” the 57-year-old said from the driver’s seat of his brown Saturn, the back seats loaded with bottled water and the two-weeks worth of food all Fort McMurray residents are advised to arrive with.

Tompkins hoped to beat the rush with his late night arrival.

Instead, his cross-country trip extended, he pulled into the parking area behind the security checkpoint a few kilometres south of the city where a cluster of rigs carrying heavy equipment and campers also waited for the city’s downtown to re-open.

He’d been out of town when the city was forced to evacuate on May 3rd and wanted to come back as part of the first wave of residents to help his landlord clean up his downtown home. “I figure there’s a lot to clean up,” Tompkins said.

Business owner Elie Issa was another Fort McMurray returnee who wanted to be among the early arrivals.

He arrived before midnight too and said he was willing to wait in his van, along with a friend and his Yorkie named Diva, so he could serve his shuttle service customers as soon as the city re-opened.

“I have a couple of customers who called and said they were coming in,” he said. “I want to be able to help them.”

Wednesday morning will be the first time Issa has been in the city since he was evacuated on May 3. He managed to rush back to his Abasand townhouse in time to rescue Diva that day, but little else. He said he will live downtown, for now, as Abasand remains off-limits. “I always wanted to come back,” Issa said.

-Sarah O’Donnell

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