As Fort McMurray residents fled the smoke and flames overtaking their city last week, a Flin Flon native was headed directly into the fire zone.
Firefighter and paramedic Ryan Chigol, who now lives in the Alberta city, has worked 20-hour shifts to help stem the tide of destruction, coming across scenes unlike anything he had ever seen before.
“People scrambling to get out of town, people going south, people going north, people driving up on the medians,” describes Chigol. “It almost felt like mass chaos. There is only one way in and out of the city, which is Highway 63, so you can just imagine approximately 75,000 people scrambling to get out.”
Born and raised in Flin Flon, Chigol left his hometown in 2004 to attend fire school. Since then, he has worked as a first responder in the cities of Thompson and Prince Albert, and is currently employed with SunCor, an energy company that operates in the oilsands near Fort McMurray.
As Chigol explained, Suncor has a municipal aid agreement with the City of Fort McMurray in which firefighters and paramedics working for the company assist the city in case of emergency.
When wildfires began threatening the city early last week, Fort McMurray’s fire chief requested SunCor’s support.
Chigol was on shift at the time at the company’s work camp, about 28 km from the city. He joined the crews rushing in to help.
“We obviously knew that this was going to be big if they were phoning us,” he said.
Once in the city, Chigol received directions from the incident commander in Fort McMurray, and went to work.
“After that it was just non-stop work for, I’d say, the first 72 hours, hauling hose, trying to put out fires, protecting homes, helping people get out of town,” he said.
Chigol said for the first three days, his crew was working 20-hour shifts with brief breaks to sleep and eat before going back into the city.
“I gotta commend all the firefighters,” he said. “There were guys from the city trying to save their own homes. I couldn’t imagine that. Some of those guys were working 30 to 35 hours straight, with no rest.”
Chigol said more crews and equipment started to pour in from other municipalities in Alberta and neighbouring provinces after those first few days, which was a huge help.
After almost a week of intense work, Chigol was given three days off to see his family.
“After six or seven days, our management said, ‘Okay, things are starting to tame down, it’s kind of left the city. Let’s come up with a schedule,” he said.
Chigol flew to his in-laws’ home in Salmon Arm, BC, where his wife Carly, five-month-old-son Odyn and their two dogs were staying when the fires struck.
“That was a lifesaver,” said Chigol, of the fortunate timing of their vacation. “I couldn’t imagine if they were [in Fort McMurray] and had to go through what so many families had to go through.”
Chigol said he will be going back to work with the fire crews for another 11 days after this week’s break, living in a work camp when he is on the job. He plans to commute back and forth to Salmon Arm for the next little while, as that will be the family’s new home for the foreseeable future.
Back in Fort McMurray, the family doesn’t have a home to go back to. The house they were renting was destroyed while Chigol and his fellow firefighters worked to protect other homes around the city.
“Over the radio I heard that Timberlea, that’s where we lived, was in jeopardy,” he recalled. “So we got in and scooted over there, and basically half the street was on fire. So I had maybe five minutes to run in and grab what I thought we needed and throw it in a bag.
“I can’t explain the feeling of going into your house and just picking things...thinking, what do you need? And knowing that you might not see these things again. I wouldn’t want anybody to go through that.”
Chigol said the intense firefighting work in the city was like nothing he had experienced before, even after 12 years in the field.
“In some of these neighborhoods, it looked like somebody dropped a bomb.” he said.
“You can’t really prepare yourself for something like this, other than your training, and what you’ve learned through the years,” he added, noting that he hadn’t yet had time to mentally process the experience.
Chigol recalled one incident where an entire block of homes was ablaze, with firefighters trying to save the homes beside it by cutting off the fire.
“You could feel the heat and flames were going over your head and ashes coming over your head, and it makes its own wind. You can feel the wind picking up,” he said.
“There were about ten seconds in there when I thought, ‘We might have to leave this area and back off,’ but we stayed there and we managed to contain the heat and the flames where it didn’t actually get to that home. It’s still standing to this day. I felt good about that.
“You’re trying to save a city, you’re working in the public service, and there’s nothing more gratifying than doing that.”
While the firefighters were able to control some of the destruction in Fort McMurray, Chigol said he thought the city wouldn’t be livable for a long time.
“It’s going to take years for the city to get back on its feet, just from the devastation,” he said. “Not only the fire that took out some neighbourhoods, but there is so much smoke in the air that so many of these places were smoke damaged, there’s water toxicity, there’s no power. They are going to have to go in there and reevaluate everything.”
Chigol said he has received countless messages of encouragement from family, old friends and colleagues around the country, including several from
Flin Flon.
He said he is also grateful for the support he has received from his parents and brother Aaron, who still live in Flin Flon.
