Slave Lake prepares for residents' return

Residents of Slave Lake will be able to return to their town Friday morning, almost two weeks after a fire demolished hundreds of homes.

Those who live north of the CN Rail tracks, including the Sawridge First Nation, can drive in starting at 8 a.m. All others are being asked to wait until 1 p.m.

“We’re coming home person by person to rebuild our community and get it running again,” Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee said in a news release. “With each day we grow in strength. “

People can also drop by a new community social centre for help. There, those with homes will receive signs to put in their windows, alerting workers they need electricity, gas or phone hookups. Volunteers have left cleaning supplies on all front porches.

People can also apply for new drivers licences, birth certificates and social insurance numbers.

Slowly, life is returning to the town. The traffic lights are working again. The playground equipment has been hosed off.

Firefighters, utility workers and others are still busy preparing Slave Lake for the return of residents.

Robyn Cochrane, Alberta government spokeswoman, said only 26 people are still staying at the Athabasca Multiplex. About 100 people are still eating meals there.

Cochrane said she suspects many Slave Lake residents have moved to the evacuation centre in Smith, southeast of their town and closer than Athabasca. The Smith centre is feeding about 300 people.

On Wednesday, nurses, doctors and other essential workers such as police officers, town officials and their families returned home.

Dr. Philip Immelman lost his home in the fire, but has remained in Slave Lake the entire time to get the hospital running as soon as possible.

He said of the town’s 13 doctors, 10 lost their homes. Nurses also no longer have homes.

But the emergency ward opened Wednesday with six stretchers. Before that happened, every surface needed to be chemically cleaned and every towel washed, said site director Betty Wudarck.

People operating key businesses such as banks, food stores and pharmacies will also return.

Jeremy Nelson has his pickup truck filled with eight jugs of water, many more tiny water bottles and a pack of toilet paper in preparation for his trip home to Widewater, west of Slave Creek where another 96 homes burned down.

His house still stands, but neighbours two doors down on either side are gone.

“You almost feel guilty having your house,” Nelson said, smoking a cigarette outside his fifth-wheel parked by Athabasca’s evacuation centre. He, wife Amy Stecyk and their five children went from living in a 2,400-square-foot house on two acres to living in a 30-foot trailer. They are the lucky ones.

Nelson said he hopes to return home Friday but hasn’t heard if that will happen.

Residents have already been told not to open their freezers, but to tape them shut and haul them to the end of their driveways for disposal.

They will also receive cleaning supplies to help with smoke damage in houses.