After the Fire: Recovery in Fort McMurray

Alan Taylor
May 3, 2017
19 Photos
In Focus

One year ago this week, a raging wildfire burned through nearly 1.5 million acres of forest surrounding the city of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. Most of the city’s 100,000 residents were evacuated, and more than 2,500 buildings burned down in Canada’s most destructive wildfire ever. One year later, the recovery is moving slowly. Some homes are being rebuilt, but the AFP has reported that Melissa Blake, the mayor of Fort McMurray, estimates that some 15,000 people have still not returned. Collected here are images of the rebuilding, and some of Fort McMurray’s residents, still worried about their future.

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Left: Smoke and flames from a wildfire erupts behind a car on the highway near Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, on May 7, 2016. Right: Homes are being rebuilt in Fort McMurray one year after a devastating fire, on April 18, 2017. #

Mark Blinch / Reuters, Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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One year ago: an aerial view of Highway 63 south of Fort McMurray, Alberta. shows smoke from the wildfires taken from a CH-146 Griffon helicopter on May 5, 2016. #

MCPL VanPutten / Canadian Armed Forces / Reuters

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On June 4, 2016, charred remains of trees are seen outside of downtown Fort McMurray, a month after raging forest fires sparked a mass evacuation of the city and surrounding areas. #

Cole Burston / AFP / Getty

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A little less than a year ago, the devastation from the fires in Fort McMurray, Alberta, on June 3, 2016. At the time, the pace of Fort McMurray residents' return to the wildfire-ravaged city was still short of expectations. #

Cole Burston / AFP / Getty

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On April 20, 2017, a man crosses a street in the downtown area of Fort McMurray, Canada, one year after the Fort McMurray fire. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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An April 19, 2017, aerial view of a residential neighborhood in Fort McMurray, Canada, where some homes have been rebuilt but many have not, one year after the Fort McMurray fire. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Mailboxes stand beside empty home lots in a residential neighborhood which has yet to be rebuilt after the fire, in Fort McMurray, on April 18, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Homes are being rebuilt in Fort McMurray one year after a devastating fire, on April 18, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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An aerial view of a residential neighborhood in Fort McMurray, where some homes have been rebuilt but many have not, on April 19, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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A view from inside the home of Steve Menard as he and his neighbors rebuild after the massive fire, in Fort McMurray, on April 19, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Lifelong Fort McMurray resident Bilal Abbas and his wife Lina Abousaid, in a rented home in Fort McMurray, on April 18, 2017, discuss the problems he and others are facing one year after a devastating fire wreaked havoc in the city. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Dead trees stand in this aerial view on April 17, 2017 near Fort McMurray, Canada. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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An aerial view of a residential neighborhood in Fort McMurray, Canada, where some homes have been rebuilt but many have not, on April 19, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Homeowner Steven Menard displays his grandson's first ice skate blades and a mug with inspirational words, among the few items he was able to recover after his home was destroyed in a massive fire one year ago, in Fort McMurray, on April 19, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Trees burned one year ago in a devastating fire, near a residential neighborhood of Fort McMurray, on April 18, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Homeowner Steven Menard speaks outside his residence that he is rebuilding with his own hands after it was destroyed one year ago in the fire, on April 19, 2017. Menard arrived in Fort McMurray as a teenager four decades ago. Little remains of the Abasand neighborhood where his house once stood. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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An aerial view of a recovering residential neighborhood in Fort McMurray on April 19, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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A bus unloads passengers in the downtown area of Fort McMurray, one year after the Fort McMurray fire, on April 20, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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Homes are being rebuilt in Fort McMurray one year afte rthe fire, on April 18, 2017. #

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty

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