Former Winnipeg couple returns to Fort McMurray: starts cleaning, preparing for guests

Dutchess Sabovitch spent the weekend washing every piece of linen in her Fort McMurray, Alta. home.

The former Winnipeg woman and her husband arrived back in the northern Alberta city on Saturday evening, more than a month after they were forced to flee a raging a wildfire on a motorcycle.

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Sabovitch drove back to the city in a rented pickup truck Saturday from Edmonton. The drive was emotional, she said.

"At the junction of [highways] 63 and 881 was the first time I saw any damage," she told CBC News. "It was horrific and it choked me [up]. That's the route to my husband's work."

"I thought 'My god if he had been there, he could have been trapped in there and we would never have been able to be together,'" she said.

On the other hand, Sabovitch said seeing the numerous billboard and signs with well-wishes and good messages on the highway was something that amazed her.

Her home is one of the many that was left standing but her son wasn't so lucky. By the time he evacuated his front lawn was onfire and helost his home to the fire, she said.

A big 'Fort Mac' family

Sabovitchspent the weekend cleaning her home, washing linens, emptying her fridge and preparing to welcome her son and a couple family friends who also have no home to return to.

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"I have a friend in the forestry department... who will probably be living in our basement and my husband's best friend from work will probably be staying here as well," she said. "We'll have a big Fort Mac family now."

Forest behind her home destroyed

While Sabovitchsaid she's glad to be back in her house, she prefers to look out the front windows. Looking out back is too devastating.

"There was a forest and behind the forest there was marsh and then behind that there was more forest and there were houses," she said. "Those houses on the other side burned. The forest burned and the marsh burned."

"When we want to see happy things we look out the front,"Sabovitch said.Happy things like a blooming garden in the front and her neighbours, who have also returned.

"As we drove into the driveway we went over to our next door neighbours to say hello and she was just amazing," Sabovitch said. "She came... hugs all around."

"The mom took me aside and she's crying," she added. And she says, 'You know I haven't been able to cry because the kids have been here and I've had to be so strong.'"

Planting what was lost

"It's cleaning up and taking care of our friends who have greater needs," said Sabovitch. "That's what's going on here for the next quite some time I'm sure."

Sabovitch said she brought two trees back to Fort McMurray with her to start replanting what was lost. She plans to get together with her neighbours to plant the trees once things settle down.

She said the next little while will be a little bit more of a challenge but she's up for it.

"You do what you have to do to support the people you love and that's the way it's going to be," she said.