Hey guys, I am back in town. I must say the last few days are filled with all kinds of emotions. When I arrived the first night in Slave lake there were fires in the bush all along the road for the last couple miles before town. As we entered town I saw a whole subdivision on fire. It was hard not to go to work right there but we had to report to the fire hall to get our assignments. The next couple days were filled with tears and moments of joy as we saw major devestation and were also successful at saving many homes from burning down.
Hydrants were close to no pressure at all. Water was limited and a lot of times we relied on water trucks to pump us water. We were not allowed to go into burning buidings as safety was a BIG concern but I will say that my team also realised this meant we would not be as efficient and will say we did what we had to do and twisted the rules as much as we could to protect what we thought was necessary.
We slept on the firehall concrete floor the fist day when we had breaks but there was not much rest. The hall was crowded, loud and busy. The airport was next to us and the amount of air support was unreal. Those pilots deserve great credit for what they are doing. Food was limited. We had bottled water as there was no water in the taps. No flush toilets.
It was hard to see the neighborhoods involved. Rows of houses were gone. It reminds me of a movie after a nuclear explosion. Nobody is around. It is quiet, skeletons of vehicles on the streets and nothing but holes in the ground where a house was.
Spirits were high as we felt we were helping and there was not one complaint of the work being done.
I feel for the families involved. If you have a chance to donate to the cause I encourage you to do so.
I won't post my pictures here at this time as the families have not had a chance to get home yet and i will wait a while yet for that.
All i will say is be greatfull for what you have. If you feel your life sucks, put your feet in a resident of Slave lake for a moment. We have things pretty good!
