“There are 325 communities like Slave Lake in the province.” It may seem like a shocking statement, but it’s reality. Sustainable Resource Development’s Duncan MacDonnell says there are hundreds of communities very similar to Slave Lake; located in a forest, and within a fire zone.
It’s that reality that has many Slave Lake and Municipal District residents concerned. They don’t want to see another town go through what they did one year ago.
“They didn’t get the notice soon enough to get the people out before the roads closed,” says Marcus Swift, a local Psychologist. Many others living in the area agree. “We believed to the last second that they [Government] would take care of us,” adds Chantal Tkach, “and I feel that for me and my community, we evacuated on our own, by our own intuition.”
“My fear for Albertans,” shares Swift, “is that unless this changes, this is going to happen again, and maybe they won’t get out in time.”
Several people who call Slave Lake and M.D. home feel the lack of communication from all levels of government surrounding the evacuation declaration contributed to the stress and confusion of the disaster.
“Even if I come home and there’s no home there, if I’m not traumatized for the rest of my life because I’ve been through a fire, that’s a plus,” admits Tkach, who fled from her neighbourhood shortly before her house was engulfed in the fire.
“The responselessness,” explains Swift, “seems to be the marker between whether this is going to be a difficult event or a traumatic event.”
Neither Swift nor Tkach are looking to place blame, they just want to make the response better in the future, for their town, and others.
“If the town did anything wrong, it was that – at times – they fell into ‘we know best’ and they forgot to listen,” says Swift. “If the province did anything wrong, it was the same.”
A Canadian consulting firm is conducting a formal review into how the province responded to the fire and how the evacuation was handled. KPMG is interviewing emergency responders who participated in the evacuation and will submit recommendations to Alberta Municipal Affairs. Jerry Ward from the Municipal Affairs office says the findings are expected to be passed on late July or early August, and the province will release the results publicly.
“If there’s any long-term political fallout of this, that is where it is,” stresses Swift, “not how the fire started.”
“It’s such a devastating thing to go through,” says MacDonnell with SRD, and that’s a message those who’ve experienced wildfire personally, don’t want anyone to overlook.
“We are such a cared for country, and so fortunate, and so lucky, which leads us to be ambivalent,” says Tkach. She says she’s not trying to be alarmist, but wants others to be prepared. “It can happen to us, and it can happen again to us, and it can happen to others.”
They hope they evacuation procedures and declaration process will improve so that future disasters don’t have to be as traumatic as this one was.
“One beautiful thing is that we will be there for them,” says Tkach. “Kelowna was amazing for us, and we will be amazing for whoever is next.”
“No one is immune to it,” she adds. “We will take care of our own. It’s a beautiful country, and it was absolutely amazing how everyone came to help, to be there, and is still really there,” she shares. “How we take care of each other is really a great thing.”
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.