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Wednesday, May 18, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
‘Do we have something to go back to?’: Evacuee Town still not considered safe: Wildfire spokesperson Blaze not under control Frustration mounted yesterday for thousands of evacuees trying to find out if they have homes to return to after a wildfire reduced a large part of their town to cinders. “You don’t know what you have back there anymore,” said Patty Lewis, who was staying at an evacuation centre in Athabasca, southeast of the burned-out community of Slave Lake. “You don’t even know when you can go home. We were told we could go home in a couple of days. Now we’ve been told two weeks, so I don’t know.” Resident Laurie Northeast added: “People want to know who lost their home and who didn’t. Do we have something to go back to? Is there a reason to go back?” Lewis, Northeast and about 7,000 other Slave Lake residents were ordered out of town Sunday night when forest fires — whipped up by 100 km/h winds — swooped in and set fire to homes, businesses and cars. The flames turned entire neighbourhoods into wastelands of burnt concrete, black grass and twisted metal. Officials and police are not letting residents back into the town, 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, because the smoke is too heavy, chemicals hang in the air and there is no electricity, power or drinking water.
IAN JACKSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Slave Lake aftermath Residents who fled are staying with friends or family or at one of three evacuation centres as far south as Edmonton. Alberta Emergency Services said 95 per cent of the town’s population has moved out, but some citizens have refused to leave. RCMP spokesman Tim Taniguchi said there have been three reports of property-crimerelated offences. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach paid tribute to firefighters from Slave Lake, some of whom continued battling the blaze Sunday even as their own homes were burning to the ground. The Edmonton Humane Society was called in to Slave Lake yesterday to look for any animals lost or injured during the firestorm.
Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee said while it may be a couple of weeks before residents can return, officials are trying to at least get word to people about which properties have been damaged or destroyed. “It is a priority. I understand the frustration of residents,” said Pillay-Kinnee. THE CANADIAN PRESS FOR MORE ON THE SLAVE LAKE FIRES, SEE STORY ON PAGE 4 AND A CHRONICLE OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM AT METRONEWS.CA.
Jim Nelson and his three-year-old son, Dylan, from Slave Lake, take a break on the curb outside the evacuee centre in Athabasca’s community Sportplex yesterday. An emergency official says there’s no timeline as to when residents will be able to return to the northern Alberta town scorched by a forest fire.