Fire Chief shares story behind viral Fort McMurray photo
Posted May 7, 2016 12:59 pm.
Last Updated May 7, 2016 5:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Log into any social media outlet and you’ll likely see the photo of a fire crew in Fort McMurray getting its first break in 20 hours.
Norm Sutton is a fire chief in Edmonton and his crew of 10 were sent to Fort Mac immediately after getting off shift.
He says they drove through the night to help their fellow firefighters.
“With no sleep, I took my crew straight in. We actually jumped on Wood Buffalo and Fort McMurray trucks to relieve those boys to give them a rest,” shares Sutton.
Twenty odd hours later the firefighters got a break from fighting the worst blaze Sutton says he’s ever seen.
The chief adds it isn’t normal to work that long without a break.
“The town’s been evacuated, the town is ours. We’re the only people in there, and there’s no gas and limited power. We basically lived on Gatorade, oranges, and crackers — anything we grabbed when we left.”
Sutton says they toughed the extreme conditions to “stand strong with their brothers and sisters” in Fort McMurray.
