AN ANNIVERSARY IN IMAGES
Haunting. Heartbreaking. And equally hard to forget. Photographers who chronicled Fort McMurray’s unprecedented evacuation and return in 2016 captured countless moments fitting such descriptions. Postmedia photographers Ian Kucerak and Greg Southam reconnected with some of the people and places in those images in advance of the first anniversary of the city’s mass evacuation.
A scorched “F-A-M-I-L-Y” sign was about the only thing Tania and Terry Brittain could salvage from their home in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood a year ago. Since then, the Brittains have become one of the first families to rebuild in the community, though not everything has gone so smoothly for neighbours. Tania says the rescued sign is one of her most cherished possessions, though she has yet to find just the right place of honour for it in the new home. In a city where many neighbourhoods are tucked away on hilltops, the clear view from Highway 63 of destruction at the Ptarmigan Trailer Park was one of many shocking sights residents endured as they returned to their city. The ghostly rubble at this site near the road leading to the Waterways neighbourhood is now cleared away and reconstruction efforts, like those elsewhere in the city, are ongoing. Special needs teacher Keith Muise was photographed last June hauling some items out of the living room of his Timberlea home. Today, the room looks much the same, though Muise says a lot of the furniture and children’s toys were either replaced or repeatedly washed before his family moved back in. Muise and his wife were initially reluctant to move back, out of concern that air quality and cleanup chaos would be hard on their son’s health. When Melissa Taylor and Steven Mercer welcomed baby Eli on June 17, 2016, he was the first baby to be born at Fort McMurray’s hospital after the facility reopened following the wildfire. Ten months later, Eli has grown into a “little tank” with a big appetite and playful nature. His parents say their Gregoire Lake Estates home suffered minimal damage in the fire, allowing them to spend as much time as possible with their baby and his big sister Abigail.