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About 7,000 people who were forced to flee their homes in Drayton Valley, Alta., Thursday faced long waits in their vehicles overnight and on Friday — uncertainty.
“The roads were packed,” said Patricia Cotteau. “I took the back way … through Rocky Rapids … 624 to Tomahawk. It was still about an hour and a half.
“We slept in our vehicles. My husband slept in his, so did my parents, my in-laws. We don’t know where we’re going from here.”
Cotteau said she’s worried about finding a place to stay.
“We have animals with us. We have to think of them. We already heard hotels were booked from Stony Plain to Spruce before the evacuation centre was set up.”
The evacuation order for Drayton Valley and Brazeau County was issued Thursday afternoon because of an out-of-control wildfire burning southeast of Drayton Valley. The evacuation zone includes the entire Town of Drayton Valley. It includes the area of Township Road 484 North to Township Road 494, and North Saskatchewan River West to Range Road 80.
Evacuees are being told to go to Edmonton and register at the EXPO Centre at 7515 118 Avenue in Hall C. If you need help evacuating, call 780-542-7777.
There were about 250 people inside the centre Friday morning, according to the City of Edmonton. The centre is providing temporary lodging, food services, clothing, animal care and health care. It has 75 kits with a cot, clothing, toiletries and bedding ready and has capacity to provide 2,500 more. Buses have been deployed to pick people up.
Albertans are asked to not bring donations of any kind to the EXPO centre.
Nancy Dodds, the mayor of Drayton Valley, encouraged residents to listen to the Alberta Emergency Alerts and check the Drayton Valley and Brazeau County Facebook pages for updates.
She left the community with everyone else Thursday night.
“It was dark when we were leaving, it was smoky, just a lot of taillights leaving the community,” Dodds said.
“The evacuation, I think, went well. People were very mindful of one another, and I think they were patient. Traffic was moving slow and people were trying to get their families and pets to safety. My number one concern is that everybody gets out and that everyone is safe.”
Dodds didn’t know if anyone decided to ignore the evacuation order and stay in Drayton Valley. She also wasn’t sure if any structures had been lost.
Firefighting resources, she said, were from “Brazeau County, we have supports coming in from other municipalities and provincial supports as well.”
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services has also provided support to Parkland County by sending two fully staffed fire trucks, one district chief and one service technician (mechanic). This team was sent to Entwistle to provide structure protection in the town.
“Edmonton is proud to support our regional neighbours in dealing with these wildfires,” said City Manager Andre Corbould. “We will continue to support this co-ordinated response.”
The evacuation took hours as multiple highways and roads had been shut down.
“We strongly urge everyone to evacuate from the community,” town officials stressed.
Road blocks are set up around the town to make sure people don’t enter the evacuation zone.
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Additional resources and support are being brought into the area to help battle the fire, the town said. Both air and ground crews will be used to bring the fire under control.
Cotteau said she and her family decided to leave when they heard the fire had jumped the river.
“We kind of all just flew and that was it.”
She, her husband, their four-year-old daughter, 18-month-old son and the grandparents all took off, Cotteau said.
“We’ve had a wildfire close before, a couple years ago, at Lodgepole, but never this close and I’ve lived in Drayton all my 33 years. Never this close before. This was really surreal.”
Cameron Roberts was also stuck in the convoy of vehicles trying to get out of Drayton overnight.
“Traffic’s crazy. We’re just waiting for my parents to come along. We’re going to meet up with them and see what’s going to happen. The lineup to leave Drayton Valley is ridiculous so I don’t think they’re on their way yet.”
Brooklynn Borle left work when the emergency alert sounded.
“We pretty much started when we heard the fire jumped the river,” she said.
“We were already kind of iffy so we packed our clothes, figured out what we were going to do with our cats and just kind of waited. And then when we got the alert just to prepare, (we) put everything in the car and got that done so we don’t have to deal with that. I was talking to my mom when we got the final alert to leave.”
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