Former Manitoban returns home to empty streets of Fort Mac
‘The streets are very empty and bare,’ says former Manitoban Jon Simcoe of Fort McMurray
A former Manitoban who now lives in Fort McMurray returned home Monday to see his city virtually empty and some parts burned beyond recognition.
Jon Simcoe, who while living in Fort McMurray also owns 64 rental properties in the Alberta city, said he was struck at how quiet the city was without most of its residents.
"The streets are very empty and bare," he said. "The roads were very open."
"You can barely make out what used to be a vehicle; they're just completely covered in ash."
After wildfires threatened and destroyed parts of the city nearly all of the 60,000 residents were evacuated and are only now beginning to return back.
"It certainly hurts seeing a lot of the parts [that] are really reduced to rubble," said Simcoe.
Simcoe was allowed back into the city earlier than other residents because he wanted to inspect his rental units before their occupants returned, he said.
Some of his properties may have smoke damage, he said, because residents left doors and windows open when they fled for their lives in early May.
He's thankful; however, he lost very few homes to the fires. Like the vast majority of Fort McMurray, they escaped direct damage, he said.
"80 to 90 per cent of the places are looking really good," he said of the city.
Simcoe said he returned May's rent to his tenants to help them settle back into their normal lives.
"People need those funds to get by," he said.
"I think Fort McMurray is a very strong place, and I think that it is going to rebuild. There is a sense of community here so people will help each other out."