teaching, Lisa Hilsenteger dutifully practised fire drills and mock school lockdowns.
But there was no rehearsal for commandeering a bus full of her young students through a burning city.
“There’s nothing more terrifying than to be in a crisis and not have your children with you,” said Hilsenteger, now out of harm’s way in Athabasca.
As a wildfire encroached on Fort McMurray Tuesday afternoon, Hilsenteger, the principal of Father Turcotte Elementary School, greeted busloads of children arriving from three evacuated Catholic schools in the city. Most families picked their children up from their school, or from Father Turcotte, but when downtown Fort McMurray was evacuated at 4 p.m., 15 children remained.