The nightmare started last Saturday for Samantha Callioux. The co-owner of Go Hard Ranch wasn’t at her home near Entwistle, west of Edmonton, but she was getting updates from neighbours.
She drove home in the middle of the night when she heard about the fire in the area.
“It was super scary to drive home. It looks like a city of flames,” said Callioux, who lives near Chip Lake. The Go Hard Ranch is by Yellowhead Highway, near the small Hamlet of Wildwood, Alta., which was used as a refuge for evacuees when the fires first broke out.
“I have relocated animals a couple of times and we’ve been up all night. I’ve slept maybe an hour. But as long as we can do something to at least try and save the area,” Callioux said on Saturday morning.
A new evacuation order was issued for the central Alberta community of Entwistle on Thursday night because of the threat posed by a wildfire near the hamlet.
Just one day earlier, a previous evacuation order for the Parkland County community had been lifted and all remaining evacuees west of Range Road 65 near Entwistle were told they could return home.
Callioux said it was quick-thinking neighbours who used farm equipment to stop the fire from spreading.
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“The great news is that some of the neighbours took the initiative and saw what was happening and they had the equipment and they stopped the fire before it could cross Range Road 92 and Township Road 544 here. Meanwhile, they have 650 head of cattle that are calving. We are not leaving because we are stubborn. We are not leaving because there is no one else fighting the fire right now,” Callioux said.
“We had water bombers finally the other day for the first time and there was another flareup. We’ve had the helicopters with the buckets. We recognize there’s over 100 fires in Alberta, but there is no one helping us. We are helping ourselves.”
Alberta Wildfire said on Saturday they are bringing in more resources and they need to be flexible about moving firefighters where they are needed most.
“The firefighters are out there working around the clock and we are bringing in more resources all the time,” said Alberta Wildfire’s information unit manager Christie Tucker.
“We are happy that additional resources are coming in today, tomorrow and Tuesday we will be seeing almost 200 additional firefighters over the next few days,” Tucker said.
Premier Danielle Smith said the province has put aside $1.5 billion for emergency management as a contingency.
“Alberta Emergency Management Agency has said they have sufficient resources and we are getting more resources in through a inter-agency partnership we have and the federal government has said they’re on standby,” Smith said Saturday afternoon.
Budget cuts to Alberta Wildfire in 2019 meant slashing the rappel program and cutting staffing for some detection towers, as well as an air tanker unit.
“Danielle Smith said we have $1.5 billion and we will get what we need. No, you won’t, because those people are already committed somewhere else. It takes years to train someone on rappel,” said Mike Dempsey, vice president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
The former wildland firefighter said many firefighters have moved to B.C. because staff are hired later in the season and laid off sooner in Alberta.
“People said: ‘We don’t want to be in Alberta. We can do better elsewhere.’ You can’t just buy things overnight. You have to build a program and that takes years,” Dempsey said.
The province said almost 200 additional firefighters will be working over the next few days.
Callioux is making an account with the United Farmers of Alberta so people can contribute to fuel and other costs that residents have had with fighting the fires themselves.
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Wildfires grow in both Parkland and Yellowhead counties -
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Wildfires prompt evacuation orders in Yellowhead, Parkland counties -
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Growing wildfires west of Edmonton prompt expansion of evacuation orders -
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Families who lost homes to wildfires in need of help -
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Parkland and Yellowhead county residents allowed to return home
Some residents of Yellowhead County have decided to stay at their properties despite the evacuation order.
Bill Stone and John Mochniuk stayed back to help protect their homes and help their neighbours.
When the fire started, Stone said there were resources to fight it.
“We had some bombers. We had helicopters. We had some ground personnel, trained forestry,” Stone said.
“The firefighters that I did see out here did an amazing job with what they did,” Mochniuk said. “They saved homes.”
But when the wildfire situation across the province escalated, he said most of those supports were pulled to other areas.
“I get it,” Stone said. “You need to put the resources where there are the most people in danger, but when that happens in rural areas like ourselves, we feel like we’re kind of left on our own.
“It’s kind of like our country goes to war and we’re armed with two-by-fours.”
People have been using tractors, hoses and water trucks to keep flames away from homes.
“Day and night,” Stone said. “The fire didn’t stop, it didn’t take a rest. It just came and we’d contain it and another one would come.”
He says the state of emergency declared by the province Saturday came too late.
“We needed the resources a few days ago already.”
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