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Belleville News THE
Proudly serving Belleville and Area
May 12, 2016 | 52 pages
www.insidebelleville.com
Fort McMurray worry – was his home still there?
Belleville - Tom Hiddleston’s a Belleville boy, born and raised. But, right now his heart is focused on his new home – Fort McMurray, Alberta. Or, what’s left of it. “I don’t know if I’ve got a place to go back to, or even a job to go back to,” said Hiddleston, 63, in an interview last Friday with Belleville News while home in Belleville on a visit to friends and family. At the time, Hiddleston had no clue as to the status of his job, his home and his car. Hiddleston, who worked with young offenders and later drove bus for Coach Canada while living in Belleville, moved to the oil town of Fort Mac, as it’s called, two and a half years ago. At the time we spoke to him, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to go back to the job he has there driving buses of workers to and from oilsands projects in the fields around Fort Mac. His employer had lost a shop in the wildfires that have gobbled up swaths of the north Alberta city. The shop services hundreds of coaches such as that which Hiddleston drives to ferry workers to the oil fields from Fort Mac. Hiddleston’s home is in the Eagle Ridge district, a neighbourhood reported on maps of the fire damage as having “some loss” to structures. News was next to impossible to get, however, on the actual status of his home – a rental he shares with a fellow driver. “I left a few days before the fires started, then one of the drivers I work with sent me a text with a photo of the fires (close to town) then the next I heard from him was ‘I gotta get out of
town…’” said Hiddleston. He had received a text from his landlord, but at the time could tell him nothing, because he has evacuated to Edmonton. The fire risk was bad when Hiddleston boarded his flight back to Ontario last week. “It was so dry, we talked about that when I left. They were putting out small fires and that, but we had a real scare a year ago when a transient worker, living out of a camper on his truck, set a fire (in a subdivision under construction) outside of town. The problem is, where the houses are built, it’s right flush up against the tree line. There’s backyards and right there is all forest.” He has seen the news footage of the fires and the simple state of not knowing what is happening back in Fort Mac gnawed at him. He felt particularly for his landlord and his family. “I feel really sorry for them because the place is only five years old and cost $1 million to build,” he said. “Me and another driver have a basement apartment – built as a granny suite and it’s a nice, nice place. For all I know it could be gone, but for our landlord’s sake, I really hope not.” Hiddleston hoped, too, his ride is still intact when he gets home. For a guy whose hobby is restoring classic cars, it’s nothing to write home about – a 2012 Chevy Cruise – “but I love it, it’s a pretty good little car. Hope it’s still there.” Hiddleston was to fly home to Fort Mac Sunday, May 8. Late Monday however, Hiddleston got a call
from his employer and his landlord. Both brought good news. “My company was told Suncor wants to start ramping production back up and they’re going to need drivers, so I could be going back sooner that I thought,” said an upbeat Hiddleston. “My landlord, too, said it looks as though
Tom Hiddleston could only rely on text messages and computer updates to learn news of his home and job in Fort McMurray, ravaged by wildfires. He was supposed to fly back from Belleville Sunday, but didn’t know if there was anything to fly back to. Photo by Chris Malette
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their home is okay and my car is still in the driveway. “It might have some scorch marks from embers and stuff, but we can fix that. It’s sounding a lot better for me.” This week, the Belleville boy hopes to return to his second home - Fort Mac on the rebound.
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