Photo: The Canadian Press

Firefighter Mark Stephenson says he can't drive through Fort McMurray without being brought back to May 2016.

That's when, in the thick of battling a ferocious wildfire that destroyed 10 per cent of the northern Alberta city, he paused from his work to film his family's home engulfed in flames.

"Every turn of a corner on the street here is a memory back to that day," he says more than 1 1/2 years later.

Stephenson had hoped that by this Christmas, he, his wife and their two young children would be settled into the house they're rebuilding. But a recent cold snap slowed construction and it's going to be another two or three months.

He sometimes finds himself reaching for a memento — a teddy bear from childhood, a body-building trophy — that no longer exists. He says he's generally OK, but there are some tough days on the job. He says he has benefited from counselling the fire department has arranged for its staff.

"A lot of people are over it and past it, and that's great. But it's not the same for everyone. There are some people out here who are still hurting."

Care providers with the addiction and mental-health branch of Alberta Health Services had 38,777 client contacts in the region between May 10, 2016, and this past Oct. 31 — about one-third higher than the tally the agency reported in March of this year. There is no comparable data for before the disaster.

Vincent Agyapong, with the University of Alberta's psychiatry department, has been studying the mental-health impact of the fire.

Of 486 adults surveyed in November 2016, the rate of probable post-traumatic stress disorder was 12.8 per cent. It would have been less than one per cent under normal circumstances, Agyapong said. Rates of probable depression and anxiety were also high.

"Some deliberately avoid going to places that remind them of the devastating impact," he says. "I've seen quite a number of patients who have left Fort McMurray because ... the city as a whole reminds them of the trauma that they went through during the wildfire."

Calls to the Some Other Solutions 24-hour crisis line have gone up drastically, says health and wellness manager Linda Sovdi.

"Fort McMurray is resilient, but tired," she said.

The regional municipality, which includes the city of Fort McMurray and surrounding communities, estimates its permanent population at 75,000 to 77,600. Its 2015 municipal census stood at almost 82,000.

At the beginning of this month, new foundations were in for just over half of the 2,579 dwellings that were destroyed. About 10 per cent have made it to final inspection.