‘Resilient, but tired:’ Mental effects of wildfire lingering in Fort McMurray
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Firefighter Mark Stephenson says he can’t drive through Fort McMurray without being brought back to May 2016.
That’s when, in the thick of battling a ferocious wildfire that destroyed 10 per cent of the northern Alberta city, he paused from his work to film his family’s home engulfed in flames.
“Every turn of a corner on the street here is a memory back to that day,” he says more than 1 1/2 years later.
Stephenson had hoped that by this Christmas, he, his wife and their two young children would be settled into the house they’re rebuilding. But a recent cold snap slowed construction and it’s going to be another two or three months.