Permanent return to Slave Lake up to two weeks away: mayor

SLAVE LAKE, Alta. – Damage assessment is getting underway in a northern Alberta town left charred by a forest fire.

Insurance adjusters are to begin examining scores of homes and businesses that were burned when flames destroyed at least a third of Slave Lake last weekend.

Work continues to restore water, gas and electricity to areas of the community that escaped the inferno, which forced 7,000 residents to flee.

Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee is promising anxious evacuees that they will get twice-a-day updates on the rebuilding process and that members of the Slave Lake council will visit evacuation centres in Athabasca, Westlock and Edmonton.

A plan is being developed to let residents back into the scorched town for a quick check on their properties.

But Pillay-Kinnee warns that it may be two weeks before people are allowed to return to their homes.

(CHED)