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Following Fort McMurray: PART II - TALES FROM GROUND ZERO

The fire is out but now the phase of dealing with the fallout begins.

The crisis is far from over.

NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

PHOTO COURTESY OF CANADIAN GLOBAL RESPONSE

T

he Fort McMurray fire is out but the dust is still settling. While the blaze broke records for being one of Canada’s largest evacuations in history, it now also lays claim to being one of the costliest as well.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates that the price tag will exceed $3 billion.

The devastated landscape is difficult to navigate. The frustration level is high among those still unable to access their properties, those waiting on permits to rebuild, and the scramble to secure contractors.

Yet, despite the financial, personal and economic toll, Fort McMurray’s bright spirit continues to shine, as evidenced by two large organizations that, while also affected by the fire, are determined to move forward while doing everything they can to help others in the community.

YMCA of Northern Alberta: “The Fire Changed Our Focus – Permanently” For Nick Parkinson, president and CEO of YMCA of Northern Alberta, May 3rd is the day everything in his life changed.

“As I am sure you can imagine, this has been a very emotional and challenging time for our YMCA,” Parkinson recounts. I would have to say that this is one of the most challenging, if not the most challenging time in my 29 years in the YMCA. Never in my life could I have imagined that in a two-hour period we would be shutting down every aspect of our YMCA: child care, community & housing, health, fitness and aquatics.

“On Sunday, May 1 and Monday, May 2 we had been following the fires in the media and were aware of the fire that was burning to the south of the city. At that time, it didn’t pose a threat. Late on Monday, the wind changed, began to pick up speed and move towards the city. On the morning of May 3rd I began to follow the fire movement closely. By 11 AM, I was informed that it had jumped the river and was moving quickly towards a number of communities. This got us even more nervous and concerned.”

By 2 PM that day, Parkinson received two photos from Jim Weller, the regional VP in Wood Buffalo, showing smoke and ash billowing close to the town.

Yet, despite the financial, personal and economic toll, Fort McMurray’s bright spirit continues to shine, as evidenced by two large organizations that, while also affected by the fire, are determined to move forward while doing everything they can to help others in the community.

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FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY: PART II - TALES FROM GROUND ZERO

“It was at this point when I began to get very concerned and felt like I needed to take action,” says Parkinson.

“At about 2:15 I called for an emergency conference and after about a five minutes of discussion it became very clear that not just one or two YMCA facilities and communities were being impacted, but the entire city was being assaulted.

“There wasn’t much debate. We needed to close all buildings and get all members, children and participants safely returned home. Our real concern was the 200+ phone calls to child care parents that needed to be made asking them to come and pick up their children. Our decision to close our facility about 30 – 60 minutes ahead of the voluntary, and then subsequent mandatory, evacuation was huge. It allowed us to be ahead of the rush and the chaos that ensued.”

And chaos it was.

“Imagine 80,000 people being told to evacuate in a matter of minutes,” Parkinson exclaims, “Panic truly, set in, traffic jams ensued, people were driving on sidewalks and running trails. To this day it amazes me that no one was killed or injured.”

It turned out, however, that physical injuries weren’t the only ones to worry about.

“The staff were traumatized and stressed,” Parkinson confirms. “A few staff have lost homes, most staff had no

belongings, no food or water, were running out of gas, and were being threatened by fire as they fled.”

YMCA is an organization used to dealing with crisis management, but when the crisis hit home, the path forward isn’t always clear.

“At times the staff wanted to have the perfect plan and road map, or they were going down rabbit holes and making speculations or acting on rumor. We made it very clear early on that we were only going to act on fact and verifiable reports, and we would be focusing our actions on the things that matter. I quickly learnt that if you try and think things through [in a crisis] and have a clear plan, you will become paralyzed by inaction.

“After the first 48 hours, the discussion within the senior leadership team changed and issues began to get more complex. For example, one of the senior management team members asked what were we going to be doing about the May auto-withdrawal for membership and child care fees.

The answer was simple. If there was no service, we would not be withdrawing funds.”

Thankfully, none of the YMCA facilities in Fort McMurray were lost, but all 10 sustained smoke damage. Thanks to an asset team, a hazardous materials clean up company, an insurance adjuster, a handful of staff and a restoration company, the YMCA was back in their facilities on June 1…sort of. As Parkinson explains, it wasn’t a matter of walking in and turning on the lights.

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FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY | PAGE 3

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“Air quality has been a significant concern. All of our sites were tested prior to re-entry, and tested once again after the remediation and cleaning had taken place. All porous materials needed to be replaced: carpets, ceiling tiles, fabric furniture, etc.”

The fixtures were not the only issue.

with the understanding that we would recall them as soon as possible. On June 23 we sent out recall notices asking all employee to return to work.”

YMCA in Wood Buffalo lost 23 per cent of their work force and had to stagger re-entry for 33 per cent of the remaining staff.

“Without a doubt, the most difficult part of this journey has been with the 180 staff in Wood Buffalo. The staff were asking what was happening.

Emotionally, we wanted to tell them they all had jobs and their salaries and benefits would continue. Fiscally that was not a reality – we had no revenue and the insurance company would not commit to salary and benefit continuance. We needed to deliver the tough message that all employees would have to go on EI,

“On May 3 we closed with 3,874 members, 347 children in child care and over 1,000 participants in our community and housing initiatives. We are not going to reopen with these numbers. It is going to take months and months to recover.

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“Since this crisis started I have reached out to and have been contacted by many colleagues offering their support, encouragement, and offers to assist. A number

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FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY | PAGE 4

FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY: PART II - TALES FROM GROUND ZERO

of my colleagues really challenged me to think about our opportunity to reposition, redefine and strengthen our YMCA in the community for generations to come.

The timing of these conversations was perfect, as it really changed my focus and mindset from the notion of moving from emergency and crisis management to that of recovery and rebuilding. I had been thinking about this transition, but this helped confirm that it was the right time both in Edmonton and in Wood Buffalo to begin to think about moving forward. I want our YMCA to be ready and I want our YMCA to be a leader in rebuilding and the recovery of the community.”

Motivated by the traumatic experience, YMCA launched, and continues to introduce, several short and long-term initiatives designed to support the children, youth and families’ emotional and wellness needs in the community.

“We are concerned about the financial impact the fires will have on our YMCA not only in 2016, but in 2017, 2018 and beyond,” Parkinson concludes. “The community

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will take months and years to recover. For the non-profit sector this is extremely challenging due to the slim margins and the challenges to find qualified, experienced staff.” But he knows one thing will never change, “The YMCA steps up… it doesn’t step back!”

Brandt – “We Just Want to Help Make Things a Little Better” Dave Wallace is the branch manager at the Brandt Fort McMurray location. Apart from a small group of employees that stayed behind, working through the crisis to support the firefighting effort, he and his team were not granted access to their facility for a month following the evacuation order. What they came back to was a community in shambles.

“As of May 20, I wasn’t sure the town was going to survive,” Wallace notes. “We were hit from all sides. The only thing that saved the city that day was that so much of the town and surrounding forest had already burned.

I was back on May 20 and that day we got three hours of rain, which helped immensely. Things kind of turned a

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FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY | PAGE 5

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corner then, but it was a very long fire fight. In my naïve brain, when I left here on May 3 I thought the fire would be long gone in two or three days, but it surrounded Fort McMurray for another 18 days.”

Wallace reminisces. “There was a lot of smoke damage to our dealership – and it wasn’t minor. We had cleaning crews here for the next two weeks. There were 12 people cleaning. They took out all the ceiling tiles and cleaned for 14 days. They let the dust settle and the air scrubbers do their work, and then came back for two more days of cleaning.”

Brandt was fortunate to retain almost all of its staff.

“We couldn’t tell the staff to come back during the voluntary evacuation, which ended on June 10th, but late in June, 54 of our 55 staff had returned. One fellow moved away permanently.”

Being a provider and service location for heavy-duty construction and forestry equipment enabled Brandt to take an active role in defending the community.

“We had two mechanics, one parts person and one salesman that volunteered to help during the fire,” Wallace explains. Together they drove class 1 vehicles, delivered equipment (mostly tractors and dozers to help smother the fire) and repaired equipment that broke down while fighting the blaze. They also drove up and down the highway delivering parts, water, food and tarps as needed.

“When we were asked to haul, we did. We were just trying to save the town.”

Brandt’s efforts to save the town didn’t end after the fire was extinguished. In conjunction with the John Deere Foundation, Brandt also donated $150,000 to the Red Cross’ Fort McMurray fund.

“I actually got to present the cheque to the Red Cross,” he says with pride. “It was a nice feeling.”

Now, as businesses are reopening and the rebuilding begins, Wallace looks around and concludes that things are not yet okay.

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FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY: PART II - TALES FROM GROUND ZERO

In the end, that’s the spirit that keeps this phase of the rebuild moving along.

“Only around 1,100 demolition permits have been issued, with only a few hundred lots cleaned [as of September 1],” says Wallace sadly. “It’s going quite slowly. A few houses are now being framed, which is great to see. With 2,500 dwellings destroyed, we were hoping that more would be done before winter sets in.”

service truck to ensure rapid onsite support as the rebuild effort gets going full time. We’ll also help with servicing equipment and rental programs, such as our ‘3 for 2’ equipment rental program that offers customers a free month’s rental on a three-month contract. There will also be discounts on John Deere equipment for anyone working on the rebuild.”

A slow start to rebuilding isn’t the only challenge.

“There is more stress,” he notes. “People are dealing with their busy lives already. We are a hardworking town and we are not up here for the good weather. People come to Fort McMurray to work and make money and work long shifts; 10 – 15 hours long for 15 – 16 days at a time. Now add to that the stress of insurance, making lists of things that have been lost, etc. Right now people are still dealing with grief.”

Brandt is doing what they can to help alleviate the stress.

“We’ve brought in a fully-equipped proactive maintenance

“We are concerned for the people of Fort Mac who have lost so much and we are trying to help make life a little better for them,” concludes Dave.

In the end, that’s the spirit that keeps this phase of the rebuild moving along. No matter what has been lost or how each individual has been traumatized, despite the stress and the complications, the city continues to support each other in any way they can.

Things may not be okay right now – but they will be in the future.

FOLLOWING FORT MCMURRAY | PAGE 7

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