Fire ravages Town of Slave Lake
Posted May 16, 2011 8:15 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
About a third of the northern Alberta community of Slave Lake has been levelled by an out-of-control wildfire.
A mandatory evacuation order for 7,000 residents was issued Sunday when high winds, some over 100 kilometres an hour, fanned the flames towards the town.
Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed including the town hall, a high school, a radio station and the local RCMP detachment.
Many residents were ordered to flee on extremely short notice, arriving in nearby towns with just the clothes on their back.
Terry Smith, manager of the Athabasca Multi-plex, tells 660News the evacuees have been extremely resilient.
“They’re quite anxious about the status and what exactly is going to happen but our role here now is to support them with anything they might need,” says Smith.
He says they have taken in 600 evacuees; many of them are sleeping in the indoor soccer area. He says they still have room for another 200.
The high winds grounded water bombers Sunday as the thick smoke made suppression efforts nearly impossible.
Duncan MacDonnell with Alberta Sustainable Resources tells 660News the weather should be much more favourable in the coming days and they’re optimistic about resuming their work.
“We’re going to have some unsettled weather that may even bring in some precipitation,” he says.
“We’ve got some very unusual winds that didn’t help things,” says Energy Minister Mel Knight. “The circumstance we have is very high southeast winds and it was very dry.”
Two hundred firefighters are already on scene while another 70 left Edmonton early Monday morning. Another 200 will arrive in the coming days from Ontario and British Columbia.
A rescue team has also left from Calgary with a fire engine to help assist in the rescue efforts in Westlock, Alberta.
More information can be found at http://www.srd.alberta.ca/wildfire/Default.aspx
