He's Home!

Ron arrived home safe and sound on Wednesday night with a pile of laundry and smelling like smoke.  He had worked in Fort McMurray for 5 days with most days being close to 15 hours long plus he had two travel days on top of that.  He was pretty happy to be home and I was thrilled to have him back.


When Ron and his partner, Andrew arrived in Fort Mac they, along with the many other officers, were briefed on the situation and were assigned jobs.

Picture from RCMP Page

Ron and Andrew, along with two officers from the tactical team, were part of the group that went door to door to check and make sure everyone had evacuated and that the houses that were left were secure.

The smoke was still very present and a constant reminder that where there is smoke, there is fire.

Some areas of the city were still in tact and free from fire while other areas suffered extensive damage and complete loss.

Vehicles were left along the street or road where they perhaps ran out of gas or their passengers had been picked up by someone else.  The fear that these citizens had must have been so huge.

In one area they came a cross a parking garage and the apartment building over top was totally gone.

Each day when they finished their shift they would find out where they would be sleeping.  Sometimes it would change due to the fire or the smoke; others due to wherever there was space available.  Most nights the lodging was comfortable except for the night that they were forced to sleep with their respirators on due to the thick smoke in the rooms.


Each day they would travel back to the city and continue their assigned task of checking on houses.

One of their areas to check was the reservation.  The road had a lot of damage done to it and they had to use a bit of muscle that day to get around trees.

It was quite an experience for the guys but I am so thankful that they are home safe and sound.  The time for rebuilding the city will come and it will be quite a while before the citizens of Fort McMurray will be allowed to return.


Last night we celebrated the boys return with dinner and a game of Catan.

Picture graciously provided by Brianne (taken by Andrew)

Picture graciously provided by Brianne (taken by Andrew)

We even let Ron win because we were so happy to have him home.  Okay, maybe he just won.