Joe McWilliams

Lakeside Leader

June 2 at 9:30 a.m. – Despite rain over the weekend, the wildfire situation in the Slave Lake Forest Area remained dire as the week began on June 2. Residents of six communities were evacuated: Swan Hills, Loon Lake, Red Earth Creek, Peerless Lake, Trout Lake and Chipewyan Lake.

Highways were closed too, thanks to the numerous fires that broke out and ran free in hot, dry, windy conditions in the last week of May. Closures included Hwy. 33 through the Swan Hills and Hwy. 686. Hwy. 88 had re-opened, as of June 1.

The week of May 26 to June 1 began with Swan Hills residents on a one-hour evacuation alert, thanks to a fire just eight kilometres north of town. But by noon that same day (May 26) the wind had shifted 180 degrees and was threatening to push the fire back toward the town.

Officials were not taking any chances and ordered a full evacuation. Residents fled south, to Whitecourt.

Things got worse. A string of fires – apparently caused by lighting – showed up on May 27, starting just north of Lesser Slave Lake and running northeast.

With temperatures hitting 29 degrees on the 28th, officials decided it was too risky to let people stay in those northern communities – some of them with only one way out by road. The evacuation order was given at 5 p.m. on May 28 for Chipewyan Lake and at 1 a.m. on the 29th for Loon Lake, Red Earth Creek, Peerless Lake and Trout Lake.

Further south, a fire in Hubert Lake Wildland Park, south of Flatbush, was up to 600 hectares by the evening of May 28, after having been detected that morning.

“It’s calmed down now,” said Flatbush area resident and M.D. #124 Reeve Murray Kerik on the morning of the 29th.

“But yesterday, my good God, we thought we were in the middle of it!”

Westlock County announced residents near the Hubert Lake fire had been evacuated.

Chipewyan Lake was in the middle of it (see story above). The biggest of the fires in the area – the same one that burned into the community, was up to 132,000 hectares on June 1.

The Whitefish FN community on the north edge of Utikuma Lake was also threatened, but not evacuated as of Sunday. In fact the nearby fire was downgraded to ‘being held,’ on that day.

On May 31, Marten Beach was put on a four-hour evacuation alert, thanks to a fire 24 kilometres (or so) northwest of there. As of press time, the evacuation hadn’t happened. The fire (unnamed so far) is the same one that forced the closure of Hwy. 88. It was at 10,000 hectares on Saturday.

Slave Lake was not asked to accommodate evacuees this time – just to set up a registration point for people from up north on their way to Edmonton.