Emotions high as Fort Chipewyan, Alta., welcomes evacuees home

Alice Rigney says Wednesday is a day she won't soon forget.

That's when she and her husband John headed to the airport in Fort Chipeywan, Alta., to "anxiously" wait for the plane carrying her granddaughter and three-year-old great-grandson fleeing the wildfire in Fort McMurray.

"It seemed like almost every vehicle in town was at the airport," Rigney said.

The plane landed, and the tears flowed. 

"To see that plane landing yesterday was to me like a godsend," she said. 

"When I saw my little guy come out of the plane," she pauses, "the tears — I just broke."

Fort Chipewyan, pop. 850, is about 200 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation declared a state of emergency yesterday, saying the town was in "chaos" trying to get its displaced members home.

Rigney says her family arrived with just a small bag, and many on the plane only had the clothes on their back.

"They realized that they were safe, and the joys and relief — the tears, you know, what they left behind," she said.

"But that didn't matter. What mattered was that they were home."

'It was one of the best nights of my life'

Mohamed Tarrabin runs the only restaurant in Fort Chipewyan.

Tuesday night, he estimates he cooked 200 meals, and served them free of charge to those fleeing the fires.

"It was one of the best nights of my life, to be honest," he said Wednesday, "because our traditions, our religion, teaches us to help people out and we never lived that until yesterday."

Tarrabin opened Chips Family Restaurant just a few months ago.

Expecting evacuees, he spent all night making meals for people and sandwiches for others heading out by boat to nearby Fort McKay.

"We came out, we helped as much as we could and a lot of people were happy. We seen a lot of people crying out of happiness that they never felt before."

Even after his marathon night, Tarrabin was still ready to do more.

"The restaurant will be open to everybody and whoever needs help."

'It's really quite amazing'

Doreen Summers works with the First Nation and is coordinating the community response.

"That plane coming out of the sky had to be one of the most beautiful things that I've seen in a long time," she said Thursday.

Summers was moved by everyone who's pitched in to help, from cooking to bringing clothes to manning the phones. 

According to Rigney, the community hall was packed Wednesday afternoon for an emergency meeting to discuss ways to get members displaced in Edmonton, Fort McKay and beyond back to the community.

She said donations are also being made at the local school.

"It was incredible to see the amount of blankets and clothing and baby clothes and Pampers and the food coming in."

She also heard from an organizer in Fort Smith, N.W.T., who said the town is pooling supplies to send to Fort Chipewyan.

"The distance may seem far from Fort McMurray, Fort Chip and Fort Smith, but you know it's all so close when it comes to something like this.

"It's really quite amazing," Rigney said, "the way people have just rallied together to help each other out."