Not everyone has 'big Fort Mac money': Some Newfoundlanders can't afford to go home

There's a perception that most Newfoundlanders and Labradorians living in Fort McMurray have made big, fast money, but the reality is that some are living paycheque to paycheque,and those people are most vulnerable now.

• 'Like Armageddon': N.L.ers in Fort McMurray describe their wildfire escapes
• Read CBC's coverage of the disaster in Fort McMurray

In a smoking section just outside an emergency shelter at Northlands Expo Centre in Edmonton, David Layden wasanxious to meet others from Newfoundland and Labrador who fled the wildfires that forced a mandatory evacuation on Tuesday.

He was hopingto find a ride back toCorner Brook, his hometown.

"I'm trying to get home and I have no way to get home," saidLayden, who had been working at Walmartin Fort McMurray.

"All my family is back in Newfoundland. I have a place to stay. I can stay with my family. I got a job lined up," hesaid.

"My main concern is trying to get back home."

When Laydenwas forced to evacuate the room he was renting, he grabbed some clothes and his laptop.

"I don't have a phone and I don't have access to internet so I don't really know what to do," said Layden.

'Our guardian angel'

By Friday afternoon,his wish was fulfilled. An anonymous donor from Newfoundland who had seen Layden's story contactedhis sister, Lil Alexander, to helpbuy a ticket.

"God love her, she wishes to remain anonymous," said Alexander."But she's really our guardian angel."

Layden will be home by Saturday.

'I'd rather go back to Newfoundland'

Charmaine Bragg, who isoriginally from Grand Falls-Windsor,has been living in Fort McMurray for nearly 30 years.

"I still have a lot of family back home in Newfoundland. It would be nice to go back there but right now we don't have the means to go back there," said Bragg.

Just days before she was evacuated from the apartment she was renting in Fort McMurray, she paid her rent for the month of May, which left her bank account dry.

Life in a shelter

Bragg said she would prefer to stay in better accommodations thana shelter, but finding an affordable hotel has been tough.

"It's nice to have food around and they provided us with clothing, because we left with nothing but the clothes on our back," said Bragg.

Bragg is thankful for the assistance from the Red Cross and volunteers at the shelter, but she's hoping she won't have to stay there long.

"It's an open shower with just a curtain that you move around," said Bragg.

"It's nice to have the facilities but to have to shower with other peoplearound is never something you want to do."

Fire rips through houses in Fort McMurray

8 years ago

Duration 0:49

Newfoundlander Jenelle Ropson took this cell phone video seconds before the wildfire reached their home.