EVACUATION EFFORTS | NOTIFYING COMMUNITIES

• • Notifying Communities
  • Reception Facilities
  • Meaningful Gestures
• • Animal Rescue
  • Darren's Story
  • Vanessa's Story
• • Annette's Story
  • Karen and Bob's Story
  • Facts & Figures

Due to the propensity of wildfires in our region, MD Council, staff and management have systems in place to notify residents, move them out of harm's way and provide for their well-being in the event of an emergency. However, the ferocity of the May wildfires and the speed with which they descended upon our communities tested the very limits of these systems. Overwhelmed and scrambling to contact individual residents in danger, the MD was ill equipped to communicate with residents at large. Residents tuned in to the local radio station 92.7 Lake FM for real-time updates. When radio communications fell silent, those who still had Internet access visited personal Facebook pages that were being updated by a small handful municipal employees and residents in the know.

On the evening of May 14, Mitsue and Poplar Lane were the first Lesser Slave River communities to be affected by the wildfire. The fire's origin was relatively close to these communities and the flames were fast approaching. Within an hour of SRD notification of Fire 65, Mitsue and Poplar Lane were evacuated. MD staff phoned those furthest from the fire and, as a secondary measure, residents were asked to alert neighbours who may not be near a telephone. A second set of MD employees drove toward these areas and, along with MD Councillors, Peace Officers, firefighters and RCMP, began knocking on the doors of homes closest to the direct threat. Once mobilized, residents were asked to register at the Evacuation Center that Social Services had established at the Northern Lakes College. The college would later house the joint MD/Town Emergency Operations Center due to its strategic location away from the fire's path, and its brick-and-steel construction.

Later that same evening as Fire 56 continued to grow and head west, the MD was able to provide communities Bayer Road, Canyon Creek, Wagner and Widewater with a two-hour evacuation notice. MD staff phoned the most at-risk community of Bayer Road while others received vital updates via md124.ca, 92.7 Lake FM, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

At noon on Sunday, the trigger point for Fire 56 was reached, and SRD advised that Assineau and all communities west of Slave Lake were under immediate evacuation order. With no accurate phone lists, MD employees made their best efforts to notify residents. By this point, the MD's door-to-door evacuation efforts proved crucial and all residents were asked to go to the Town of Slave Lake where to join those who had been evacuated the night before.

An unexpected and unfortunate late-night wind shift caused Fire 65 to breach the boundaries of the Town of Slave Lake and threaten more densely populated areas. All MD residents had to scramble to make a second evacuation along with town residents.

With a new fire beginning to the north, thick black smoke blocking out the sun and many unknowns, the MD ordered the evacuation of Old Town, Devonshire and Marten Beach. At this point, all routes out of the area were blocked by fire. Evacuees gathered at the south side of Highway 2 and waited for what was to come. Eventually, the fire was fought back enough to reopen Highway 2; first west, then east. Trapped residents made a long, slow exit through dark orange haze, out of danger and into the unknown.