AUPE members pull together in the wake of Slave Lake Fire
Four weeks after a devastating wildfire destroyed hundreds of homes in Slave Lake, Jeremy Lindsay still marvels about the disaster.
At one point during that horrific afternoon on May 15, the provincial fish and wildlife officer and Local 005 member was completely surrounded by the inferno as he raced from house to house, making sure no one had been left behind.
Shifting winds blowing more than 100 km per hour drove a wildfire straight at the town of 7,000. It leveled more than 700 homes and businesses — a third of the entire community — and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
There are nearly 300 AUPE members in the Slave Lake area, including health care workers, forestry workers, school division and college employees, staff in government offices, ATB Financial staff and others. Many were among those who lost their homes and nearly everything they owned.
It is one of the most devastating catastrophes in Alberta history, but as with all disasters, there are also remarkable stories of bravery, resilience and kindness of spirit.
Lindsay and other AUPE members were helping evacuate the community when a resident told him that someone was trapped in a garage in the town’s southeast corner, where the fire was ripping through homes and businesses.
“I got on the radio, got a couple of RCMP guys and we headed down there,” he recalls. “Everything was on fire. There were embers everywhere. Propane tanks were exploding.”
Despite scorching heat and thick, black smoke that blotted out the sun and made it impossible to see, they found the house, which was already ablaze. Lindsay found out later the occupant had already made it out.
They also went looking for a disabled man reportedly trapped in a house.
“You’re driving there as quickly as you can,” he says. “There’s fire on both sides of the road. Cars are on fire. Smoke is everywhere.”
They found the house, kicked in the front door and quickly went from room to room. Fortunately, it too was empty.
“As you walk out, 40 seconds later a propane tank blows a hole in the side of the house where you were just standing,” he says.
Lindsay was one of those who lost his home, but a month later, he’s focused on the positives.
“You shed your tears,” the married father of two acknowledges. “But tragic events like this can really make us better people and make communities stronger. We’ve been blessed. I’ve been overwhelmed with the support.”
Local 001 member Shannon Holman was on shift at the fire centre on May 15. Several wildfires were burning in the area, forcing the evacuation of some small, outlying communities. They were several kilometres from Slave Lake and didn’t appear to be headed for the town.
But abruptly in the late afternoon, she says, “the wind picked up and changed direction and it went from a gusting wind to a plough [strong and steady] wind.”
Holman realized her own neighbourhood was threatened. She called her family and told them to pack up what they needed and get out. As soon as she could, Holman headed home to join them. Normally, it’s a three-minute drive from the fire centre to her house, but the only open road into her neighbourhood was already clogged with evacuees. Fortunately, Holman’s husband and kids were already on their way out of town.
“I tried to get home, but I couldn’t,” she says. “I knew my house was gone, so I helped a friend get her stuff out of her house.”
She made it to safety with only the clothes on her back, but what’s most important, she says, is that all her loved ones are healthy and unharmed.
Holman admits that in the whirlwind of emotion in the weeks following the fire, her family considered moving away. But in the end they decided that their roots in Slave Lake ran deeper than the disaster.
“My job is here,” she says. “My husband has a good job here. It’s gorgeous countryside here. We like the community. It’s a really good community.”
Local 012 member Gordon Wolters sensed trouble the evening of May 14. A fire had been burning a few kilometres from his home at Canyon Creek, west of Slave Lake, but the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.
Still, the married father of five put sprinklers on the roof just in case the wind shifted and blew hot embers in their direction before they headed into town to have a family dinner with friends. At about 7 p.m. he saw smoke from another fire east of Slave Lake.
“We were really alarmed then, so we ate quickly and went home,” he says.
The following morning the wind had calmed down and it seemed like the fire had been contained, but by midday the winds were changing and the community was ordered to evacuate. They packed up and headed to a friend’s place in Slave Lake. Wolters headed back home alone.
“I’m halfway thinking that I might stay and save the house, depending on what happens,” he says. “But I had a quick look around and realized there was no bloody way I would be able to stay. The fire was coming down the hill directly onto our street.”
He grabbed a few more possessions and rejoined his family. When they tried to head east out of Slave Lake, the fire to the east of town was bearing down on the community.
They had to head west back toward their own home, which by this time was about to be engulfed. A few kilometres out of Slave Lake they found a 30 – 40 acre, cleared, fenced area used as a camp by an energy company.
He pulled the gates off by their hinges and drove in. Several other vehicles followed into the refuge.
“I didn’t want people getting stranded on the road if the fire came over them,” he says. About an hour later, the road to the east opened up again.
“We high-tailed it down to Innisfail where Grandma was.” Their house is gone, but Wolters says it can be rebuilt. However, keepsakes and heirlooms that were in the house can never be replaced.
“That hurts more than anything,” he says.
When Local 069 member Heath Bowen saw the steady stream of cars pouring into Athabasca the night of the evacuation, it took him a few moments to realize what was going on.
Hundreds of Slave Lakers were fleeing the fire to Athabasca, either to stay with family or friends or to take temporary refuge in the hastily set up evacuation centre in the town’s recreation complex near Athabasca University. They were welcomed with open arms.
“We’re a tight-knit community,” he says, recalling a series of wildfires a decade ago that had advanced frighteningly close to Athabasca, causing fears that his community would have to be evacuated. “This was almost us back then. We were just helping out the way we hoped we would have been helped, had it happened to us.”
Bowen booked time off work at Athabasca University and went around the campus collecting donations from staff to help buy supplies for the evacuees. In just a few hours, he’d gathered more than $1,500. Of those who couldn’t donate, nearly all were already volunteering in some other way.
“Of the people I talked to, I’d say 95% were doing something to help out,” he says.
Fellow Local 069 member Susan Stahl helped collect towels, blankets and toiletries and also volunteered in an evacuee centre’s kitchen.
“Nearly everyone in town was helping out in some way,” she recalls. “AUPE retirees were coming out and doing whatever they could. Everyone, it seems, was making some kind of connection with people.”
But what was most inspiring, Stahl says, was the attitude of the evacuees themselves.
“Nobody seemed downtrodden,” she says. “They were really upbeat. Everything you did, someone was saying thank you.”
Similar stories were taking place all over Alberta as welcome mats were rolled out for Slave Lake evacuees.
Five hours away from the fire, the site manager for the Cold Lake Healthcare Centre took three families into his house.
“It was pretty overwhelming for him. Of course he took them in, but at first he didn’t know what he was going to do,” says Michele Taylor, who along with about 20 other members of Local 056 Chapter 006 stepped up and helped with donations of gift cards, food and clothing.
The husband of one of her coworkers owns a pharmacy. He donated an entire pickup-truck load of toiletries and other necessities.
“It happened really quickly,” she says. “Nobody even thought twice. We all just chipped in.”
“It was heart-rending, I’ll tell you that much,” says Sandy Kyle, who was part of three-member team of AUPE vice presidents who visited the evacuation centres in the days following the fire.
Kyle, Sandra Azocar and Erez Raz were there to make contact with members affected by the fire and offer support. “The impact of the fire was so huge,” Kyle says.
But she says they also saw individuals and their neighbours pulling together, drawing support from one another and uniting to help total strangers.
“The way our members — and their entire communities — dealt with this disaster is amazing,” says Raz. “People saw others in need and without any hesitation they stepped up to help in any way they could.”
Azocar says she spoke with several Slave Lake AUPE members who helped other residents evacuate right up to the last possible moment.
“By the time it became clear that they couldn’t stay any longer, they were left with only a few minutes to get their own stuff,” she says. “It really showed me the level commitment they have. I’m very, very proud of our members.”
Story by: Andrew Hanon, AUPE Communications
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