EDMONTON – As week three of the Fort McMurray wildfire evacuation sets in, residents who have temporarily called Edmonton home are wondering when they will return home.
Since the evacuations during the rapidly growing wildfire, residents have had to make sacrifices on living conditions and take it one day at a time.
“We have found material support, money support, and people around us are very friendly,” Sergii Melnikov, accountant and father of two girls, told Global News on Wednesday.
Melnikov is staying with his young family, including twin girls, 7, at the Northlands grounds in an RV.
READ MORE: Fort McMurray wildfire: Edmonton Expo Centre sees 17,000 evacuees
The family came to Fort McMurray from Ukraine in January 2015. The outpouring of support they’ve encountered since the fires is more than they expected.
“After what happened I don’t want to move to another province, we are really impressed and we are prepared to be here for weeks and weeks,” Melnikov said.
A short distance away, Fort McMurray residents continue to pick up supplies from Edmonton Emergency Relief Services. A special depot is set up at Kingsway Mall.
Among the evacuees on hand Wednesday afternoon was Jesus Longabela.
“We went to Anzac for the evacuation. And I didn’t sleep there, I slept in the truck with my baby crying and my dogs barking,” Longabela said.
Residents have been waiting to hear on the condition of their homes and for Longabela the situation is the same.
“Fort McMurray is a good place and I started my life there,” he said. “I want to go back and get my personal things and papers.”
READ MORE: Phased re-entry into Fort McMurray after wildfire to begin June 1
At the Northlands grounds, Melnikov knows that life is in a bit of a hold pattern, but he and his family are taking the situation one day at a time.
“It’s a little bit frustrating,” Melnikov said. “It’s little bit, but not too much.”