It’s been a year since disaster swept Fort McMurray, Alta., damaging 2,400 homes and forcing 80,000 people to evacuate the city.

In the largest wildfire evacuation in the province’s history, the small hamlet of Wandering River – located nearly halfway between Fort McMurray and Edmonton – took in nearly four times its population to accommodate evacuees. 

Local fire chief Colin Hankinson was speaking with Warren Lacusta at the time about a 36-hour barbecue the fire department hosted for more than 800 evacuees with RVs. Hankinson told his friend that with so many RVs, there was an immediate need for propane.

Luckily, Lacusta is a Propane Service Technician in Federated Co-operatives Limited’s (FCL) Edmonton Region. Lacusta contacted his supervisor and area manager to see how much propane Co-op had available and how to make the donation happen.

In a very short time, they received a permit from the County of Athabasca to set up a temporary propane filling station. Lacusta and his colleagues delivered equipment, established the connections and started pumping propane. 

“So many grateful evacuees, so many heart wrenching stories and so many amazing volunteers,” said Lacusta.

Over three weekends, Co-op provided more than 14,000 litres of propane valued at $14,000 to evacuees. This is in addition to the more than $800,000 in cash and in-kind donations by the Co-operative Retailing System across Western Canada.