From the Town of Rainbow Lake
It was a quiet night on the fire front last night. We have a re-entry plan ready to deploy once we get to the point where we believe the fire is not going to come back. Atco has been assessing the damage and formalizing their plans for the restoration of power to the Town. We are hopeful in the next couple days to be able to provide the re-entry dates to everyone. Once that decision is made, the Town will provide an update and release those plans as well as an information booklet on our website.
As of today, the Town and Cenovus plant look good. We are actioning hot spots on Highway 58 as that is the third asset at risk before we can move into the re-entry preparation. The wildfire group continues to sweep through the areas inside our containment lines and around the Cenovus plant to make sure those areas remain secure. Our Fire crew continues to maintain patrols around Town, as well as actioning those hot spots close to the Highway.
We had to call it quits on the freezer clearing program. Things were getting to be a little too rancid and we are now risking that smell getting into, and remaining in peoples homes as well. Our goal is to get a few powered stairs lifts to assist residents who will need to remove their fridges and freezers from their homes, without opening them. The general plan is once the power is restored, we would allow the freezer to refreeze the contents. We would then wrap/tape up the appliance and bring them out into the residents driveway. There, the resident can open them and take whatever photos they would need as per the advice of their insurance provider. The resident can then make the determination, in collaboration with their insurance provider, if they would like to try and clean out the unit, or have the Town haul it to the transfer station. If a resident chooses to clean the unit out, we can then come back a second time and return it into the home. Given the requirement to refreeze the contents, this is something that will have to happen after the power is restored and likely after we have allowed residents home once again.
