Being evacuated twice from Fort McMurray has not remotely deterred a Sundre- area oil worker from wanting to return to work “as soon as they're ready to get me back up there.”
Donnie Leggette, 31, who lives north of town, has been working in the oilpatch on and off for more than 10 years, and had most recently spent about 14 months in Fort McMurray.
He was on his way back up when the initial evacuation was declared and was turned around by the police about 20 kilometres south of Fort McMurray. So he complied and headed back south on Highway 63, along with tens of thousands of others who were also fleeing the oncoming wildfires. He said it took him about six hours to travel 200 kilometres.
After coming home, he waited to hear from his employer about returning to work.
“Then just this last Sunday (May 15), they flew me back up.”
He started work the following morning on Monday, May 16, but barely six hours later was alerted to another order to evacuate as the wildfires threatened the camp, he said.
The camp's workers were supposed to later be bused back to recover their personal items before heading to another camp further north. But by that time, the RCMP had already closed off the road to get back to the first camp as the fire had come too close, he said.
“We had to leave everything behind in the camp we were initially in.”
He and the other workers spent the night in the camp further north, and as of Thursday, May 19, Leggette still had not yet heard any news on being able to recover his belongings — namely his phone and wallet, which were his primary concerns, but also some clothes, which he wasn't quite as worried about.
On Tuesday, May 17, Leggette said he was flown home.
He said the whole ordeal was like nothing he's ever experienced before.
“The smoke was real thick, I'll tell you,” he said.
“By the time they evacuated us, the smoke was so thick it was almost like nighttime — the sun wasn't getting through or anything.”
Upon arriving in Calgary, Leggette found himself borrowing someone else's phone to call for a ride home. But a lot of the other workers are from Eastern Canada and didn't know anyone in the area to call. However, they weren't totally stranded as they were provided with assistance finding temporary accommodations, he said.
“It wasn't like they were completely abandoned.”
Seeing the response from around Canada has been a positive highlight in an otherwise devastating natural disaster.
“All of the stories I've been hearing, it sounds like everybody around the province and the country really seems willing to do what they can to help,” he said.
“It's nice to see.”
Despite everything that's happened, Leggette told the Round Up he plans to head back to Fort McMurrary as soon as possible.
“Got to pay the bills,” he said.
