Escorted visits to burned homes in Fort McMurray start today
Residents from the Abasand, Beacon Hill and Waterways neighbourhoods still have to wait until June 8 to return
Some Fort McMurray residents who lost their homes to "the beast" will get to lay their eyes on its destruction for the first time on Sunday.
At their side will be military veterans who will sift through the remains, searching for anything left untouched by the flames.
- Veterans to help Fort McMurray residents search ashes of their homes for valued items
- Boil water advisory lifted for part of Fort McMurray, fire ban remains in effect
These veterans are members of Team Rubicon.
On their website, Team Rubicon describes itself as combining the experience of military veterans with first responders to "rapidly deploy emergency response teams."
"For safety reasons, residents will not be allowed to visit destroyed homes on their own," Bob Couture, director of emergency management for the municipality, said Friday.
"Once on site, residents may instruct Team Rubicon where to sift for specific items ... in the rubble."
Slowly returning home
Residents from all neighbourhoods outside of the restricted areas are now allowed back to their homes. The restricted areas are Abasand, Beacon Hill and Waterways.
Those who lost homes in those three neighbourhoods will be given escorted visits beginning June 8.
It hasn't been announced yet when residents in these neighbourhoods, whose homes did not burn down, will be allowed to return permanently.
The boil water advisory has been lifted for the Lower Townsite area of Fort McMurray, but remains in effect for all other areas of the city.
The Lower Townsite includes the area north of the Hangingstone River, west of the Clearwater River, east of Memorial Drive to the Confederation Bridge, and MacDonald Island.
An air-quality advisory from AHS has also been issued for the city.
The wildfire remains out of control, but fire crews are having some success fighting back. As of Saturday, 56 per cent of the fire was contained.
The fire now sits at 581,695 hectares, but there was also limited growth on Saturday. Extreme fire conditions do still exist for some parts of the wildfire.
More than 2,000 firefighters and support staff are currently fighting the fire.