If the Kenow Mountain wildfire burning within Waterton Lakes National Park reaches the townsite and destroys it, business in the area would likely cease to exist, according to the co-owner of a nearby bed and breakfast.
“If Waterton happened to burn down, most businesses in this area would be dead,” Josh Creason said in an interview Monday. He is one of the operators of the Rocky Ridge Country Lodge in Mountain View, located roughly 20 kilometers east of the park.
“If Waterton wasn’t there, I’d lose a lot of people.”
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However, Creason said he isn’t worried about his immediate bottom-line, opening the lodge doors to about a dozen park residents for free after a mandatory evacuation was issued in the area as the fire spreads.
“I know how many people were in the park that would need space so we just took them in,” Creason said.
“It just felt like the right thing to do and we could do it.”
WATCH: Waterton Lakes National Park’s rich history dates back to the 1800s. As Quinn Campbell reports, fire crews are working hard to preserve that history as a wildfire threatens the park.
Creason is canceling upcoming bookings, in part so he has room for the evacuees, but also so would-be tourists don’t come all the way to southern Alberta, only to be greeted by smoky skies and park roadblocks. So far he said he’s turned away roughly 30 potential guests.
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“I’ll probably be canceling about 50 more this week, just to keep them away,” Creason said.
“There’s nothing for them and the air quality’s not good and they need to know. I don’t want them to come and see Waterton like this.”
If anyone affected by the wildfire needs a place to stay, Creason said he will make room for them. For now, he and many others in the area are hoping that fire crews are able to contain the blaze, which has grown significantly in recent days.
“It will be a sad day if it reaches too much of Waterton,” he said.
“It will take years to get it back to where it was if it destroys the hikes or into the town site and it will affect a lot of people.”
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