Calgary mayor apologizes for brief closure of wildfire evacuation centre, city sends more support to Jasper

Calgary’s mayor is apologizing after the city’s reception centre for wildfire evacuees was briefly closed Wednesday night.

Many Jasper wildfire evacuees came to the centre at Shouldice Arena at 1515 Home Road NW Wednesday evening to a sign saying it was closed.

“To those evacuees who did not immediately receive assistance, I apologize sincerely,” Gondek said Thursday morning. “I can only imagine what it must have been like to have to rapidly evacuate and then drive 12 to 15 hours only to be met with closed doors.

“While this was only the case for about 20 minutes, I can understand that it would have been heartbreaking.”

The centre reopened to evacuees at 11 p.m. and stayed open overnight.

Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) Chief Sue Henry said the brief closure was as a result of a scheduling change prompted by a lack of evacuees to the centre on Tuesday night.

“The previous night, we had nearly zero overnight visitors, so we had modified our hours to close earlier in the evening,” she explained. “However, with the fire reaching the townsite last night, we were able to quickly adjust and reopen to any overnight travelers.”

As of Thursday morning, 465 evacuees had registered in Calgary.

The city is still encouraging evacuees to register with the province.

The centre is scheduled opened at 8 a.m. Thursday and will remain open for the next 48 hours to ensure everyone that is looking for support is able to receive it.

Calgarians looking for a way to lend a hand are asked not to bring donations to the reception centre at Shouldice Arena, as it is not set up for that. Instead, they are asked to check the province’s website for a list of charitable organizations or contact emergencysupportoffers@gov.ab.ca

More support from Calgary headed to Jasper

As news of wildfire reaching the Jasper townsite came out Wednesday, Calgary says it answered the call to send help in the form of firefighters.

Henry says at the request of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA), 19 members of Canada Task Force 2 were deployed to Jasper last night.

The team is made up of emergency managers, paramedics, firefighters, fire chiefs, and police officers who will support the local authorities, and provide capacity and expertise in emergency response and emergency planning.

Henry says enough personnel were sent to cover a day shift and a night shift, so crews will be working around the clock.

The team also has military food rations, tents, and sleeping bags so they can be self-sufficient if needed. They are also traveling with respirator masks and an emergency room doctor.

CEMA has also sent its mobile command centre to Jasper, which can function as a mobile work space.

“We are in constant contact with the team to determine any other needs,” Henry said.