ABOVE: Woman dies in Idaho while attempting to escape from wildfire
While scores of evacuees in Midway have been allowed to return home, there are those who remain in the town and it’s still not clear how much longer they’ll be there.
On Sunday, evacuees forced to flee Kettle River Provincial Park were allowed back in to retrieve their campers and vehicles, so they could return home.
For the Hamilton family, they cannot shake the memory of being in the park as the fire approached.
“We had two vehicles in there and camping equipment, but we were also hearing that some people’s homes were lost. We’re stranded, but some people have lost everything,” said Alison Hamilton, who escaped the park on Thursday with her husband and three children.
They and others were allowed into the park just after noon on Sunday. Mauro Calabrese said the fire came within meters of the trailers.
“Some of the vehicles at the front end that were in the overflow parking and up at the main gate, but other than that, everything else looked really good.”
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Evacuees like Maurice said it could have been much worse.
“It sort of is like a war zone in a sense, except that the enemy is a little different and he’s not shooting back,” he said.
Many wildfire evacuees remain in Midway.
While there is good news for provincial park campers who’ve been allowed to return home, homeowners within the evacuation zone are still in Midway. It’s not clear how much longer they’ll be there.
Until they leave, a large scale effort is underway by the people of Midway to accommodate them as best they can.
At the Bored Room Cafe, they’ve been preparing three meals a day, so evacuees in Midway don’t have to worry about where their next meal will come from.
RJ and Tom Lesher, the cafe’s co-owners, closed down their business, so they could focus on feeding the evacuees, taking a financial hit of about $6,000.
Both said they’ll find a way to recover their losses, adding the well-being of evacuees is more important to them.
“We’re trying so hard to give as much as we can because we know how hard it is to lose that much,” said RJ.
“They need help–it’s just that simple. They need help,” he says.
If you’d like to help, call the Midway Community Centre at 250-449-2310 and give their name, number, and exactly what they can contribute. They will then get a call back to say whether their specific donation offer is needed.
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