Minister of Municipal Affairs Danielle Larivee told reporters at an 11 a.m. press conference Tuesday that the province is still on track to allow for the voluntary re-entry of Fort McMurray evacuees to the community on Jun. 1.
While many parts of the province were hammered with rain or snow that moisture unfortunately didn’t reach Fort McMurray and none is forecasted over the next few days. The Horse River fire now measures 522,892 hectares in Alberta and nearly 2,500 hectares in Saskatchewan, it’s being fought on both sides of the border. It grew mostly on the east and north-east away from Fort McMurray over the long weekend.
Reinforcements are on the way
Over 176 kilometres of dozer guard has been built with 1,217 firefighters, 55 helicopters, and 182 pieces of heavy equipment on scene. The province is planning to bring in an additional 1,000 firefighters over the next two weeks to supplement the crew. Those reinforcements will come from across Canada, the U.S. including Alaska and a crew of about 280 from South Africa along with other international partners.
“We continue to work through our national and international partners to bring in qualified, certified, highly trained and experienced firefighters that can hit the ground running in these still very extreme fire conditions,” said Chad Morrison, Alberta Wildfire.
The high in Wood Buffalo is expected to reach 21 degrees Tuesday with humidity at 31 per cent and winds from the south pushing the fire north at 20 kilometres per hour gusting to 40.
Hospital work resumed Sunday
Restoration work on the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre resumed on Sunday. There are about 400 contractors working around the clock to bring the hospital back online to provide basic services to residents when they return on Jun. 1.
“The mobile urgent care centre now has an operating room, an anaesthesiologist, an obstetrician capable of doing surgery and a general surgeon,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs Danielle Larivee. “This centre is open to anyone in the region including first responders, restoration workers and returning evacuees when that time comes.”
The air quality was six at 6 a.m. in Fort McMurray Tuesday, which is considered moderate.
What to expect upon your return
Many questions regarding re-entry for residents will be answered in a 36-page document released by the RMWB Monday night.
“There is still more detail to come, but we are trying as hard as possible to make sure that those people that go back to homes that are still standing have as much information, advice as possible with the regards to the cleanup of their homes,” said Scott Long, executive-director operations, Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
Scott noted that every home still standing will need a deep cleaning.
Minister Larivee expects some people to simply collect their belongings then return to their temporary homes, while others may just survey the damage and some might just want closure if their home was lost.
“It will be much different for every person, it will be a long journey of many years,”said Larivee when asked how long it will take for things to return to normal in Fort McMurray.
Businesses that have been deemed essential have already been contacted by the RMWB to be up and running upon the return of residents.
The RMWB will run a re-entry simulation this week to look at how the entire process will work to try and identify any gaps. Focus will be put on the traffic control plan in an effort to return 80,000 people to the community over just a few days.
If you’re coming back to Fort McMurray to stay, you’re being asked to pack two weeks’ worth of goods including food, water, and prescriptions. Fort McMurray will be under a boil water advisory.
Larivee noted that power has been restored to 90 per cent of the region while natural gas has been turned on to 99 per cent of homes except for those in Abasand, Waterways, and Beacon Hill.
