‘It’s burnt in my brain’
After five years, memories of Fort Mcmurray fire still fresh, N.L. ex-pats say
The devastating news came in the form of a text from a friend, the first to get through in some time.
“She said, ‘I’m so sorry, Tash,’ and that’s when I knew we had lost it,” Natasha Humphries, originally from Labrador City, told The Telegram Monday.
Humphries’ home was one of the nearly 2,600 lost to the wildfire that ravaged Fort Mcmurray and the surrounding area of northern Alberta five years ago.
Home to a large contingent of Newfoundland and Labrador ex-pats who have settled in the region over the years for job opportunities in the resource-rich province, Fort Mcmurray has lately had more than its share of struggles.
First there was the fire in 2016. Last year, in late April, the Athabasca River flooded, causing major damage. Last week, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which takes in Fort Mcmurray, declared a state of emergency due to a surge in cases of COVID-19.
“We’re Fort Mac strong, right, we persevere,” Humphries said.
Though five years have passed, the memories of the fire are still with her and her family, she says, the images of the evacuation seared into her mind, the fear on her children’s faces most of all.
“My daughter, who was 10 at the time, said to me, ‘Mom, we’re going to die. I love you. Just know I love you,’” Humphries said.
That was the moment the seriousness of the situation hit her as real, said Humphries, who has lived in Fort Mcmurray for 17 years.
LIKE A MOVIE
Like Humphries, Bill Ramsey said imagery from that day sticks with him vividly, and talking about it now brings him back.
“There were taillights as far as you could see on both the south-running lanes and people had gone over into the north lanes, and they were leaving the same time, going against the traffic because there was almost no one coming up,” the native of Port aux Basques said.
“It was an almost apocalyptic-type situation you’d see in a movie.”
Since the fire, Ramsey has moved around a bit for work, coming back to Newfoundland for a while, going back out West, and currently in the process of moving to Halifax.
He and his wife, Jackie, now rent out their house — thankfully unscathed by the fire — in the Timberlea neighbourhood of Fort Mcmurray.
The sound of any siren sent them into an almost panic-like mode in the immediate aftermath of the fire, he recalled.
“You noticed it, you really did,” he said.
Debbie and Brad Drodge, the former of Pilley’s Island, the latter from Little Heart’s Ease, were also very fortunate the fire missed their Timberlea home.
The route they took during the evacuation is now a constant reminder of that day, Debbie says.
“Every time we go down Confederation Way, it always crosses my mind,” Drodge said.
“It’s burnt in my brain, the images from that day, the traffic and everybody trying to get out. It was chaos, but it was controlled chaos, fortunately.”
After initially going north to a work camp during the evacuation, the couple got word Fort Mcmurray was passable the following morning and hit the road again. They spent the next month in a hotel room in Edmonton.
During the time they spent away from Fort Mcmurray, Debbie said, the couple realized how much they couldn’t wait to get back.
“It made us feel like this is our home,” she said.
WEDDING TREPIDATION
There are burnt trees in the background of one of Sherry and Andrew Gusse’s wedding pictures.
The couple’s August wedding day was rapidly approaching when the wildfire broke out and they were forced to leave Fort Mcmurray.
They, too, wound up in an Edmonton hotel, able to return a month later, grateful their Timberlea home was still standing, but hurting for friends who weren’t so lucky.
Sherry, who grew up in Grand Bank, said tears still often well up in her eyes whenever she sees a picture of the devastation or it pops up in the news or a documentary on television.
While there’s new forest growth, coming back into Fort Mcmurray, you can still see the scorched trees, she says.
“It always kind of takes you back to that day,” Gusse said.
The Gusses went ahead with their wedding plans, but not without much trepidation, she said. While it was a happy day for them, they were cognizant of the heartache others were still going through. Eventually, Gusse began contacting people they had hired to help with the wedding.
“I held off for a bit, but everybody was a go, except for one lady. She went to Calgary and was staying in Calgary. She didn’t come back,” she said.
After all they’ve been through, Fort Mac residents are resilient, Gusse says.
“It’s almost like, throw it at us, we can get through it,” she says.
‘STILL FIGHTING’
Losing their home was earth-shattering, but Natasha Humphries said she and her husband, Andrew, a fellow ex-pat from Lumsden who she met in Fort Mcmurray, held it together as best they could for their kids.
“It was a very empty feeling,” she said.
“We felt like zombies for a very long time.”
The couple built a new house on their property in Fort Mcmurray’s Abasand neighbourhood, but got “burned,” Humphries said. The upstairs is filled with black mold and the builder is refusing to help.
“So, we’re still fighting,” Humphries said.
Many people in the area are still healing from the wildfire, Humphries said, and quite a few haven’t returned.
“I have a lot next to me that’s empty and two lots across from me that are still empty. Lots of people are still fighting with builders, so it’s definitely not done. They make sure that it is fresh in our minds,” she says.
Still, Humphries says she chooses to be optimistic.
“It’s kind of always how I’ve been, but I am hopeful. Every year I’m like, ‘Oh this year the house will get fixed,’ and I just keep being positive,” she says.