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nights straight, and the magnitude of the situation was taking a toll on the team. Some of those fighting the fire now had to grapple with the fact they’d lost their homes, while many still had their family in the back of their minds and wondered where they had ended up in the evacuation. o C ornforth and his team left Fort McMurray Sunday, May 8. No one really wanted to leave, but they knew the job needed rested bodies and healthy minds. While many sat in the airport waiting to go home, the skies let forth a bit of rain as if to show them a touch of assurance. o A t its height, the fire spanned more than 500,000 hectares, an area larger than Prince Edward Island. It

destroyed 2,400 structures — nearly 10 per cent of the city. Residents who had homes to come back to had gritty and exhausting work ahead cleaning their mouldy refrigerators and scrubbing down homes stained by soot and ash. One analyst from the Bank of Montreal estimated insurance losses could exceed $9 billion. Esler said no could ever plan for something like this. It was a black swan event. The Fort McMurray fires tested the emergency processes put in place by industry and the mutual aid agreement, but the results spoke for themselves — no one perished in the fires, vast portions of the city were saved, major infrastructure was unharmed. It was the “neighbours helping neighbours” code, with everyone participating to their max and beyond. n

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