Here is an update from the Town of Rainbow Lake. It was posted around 8pm on Friday, May 5th:
HWF036 was renamed the Long Lake Fire as Long Lake is the Dene Tha’ name for Rainbow Lake. Fire is currently 2,130 hectares (as of this afternoon) and is not currently threatening the Town, the Cenovus Plant or Highway 58, our three trigger values for a potential evacuation of the Town.
Our focus for the day in the ECC has been to increase the level of detail in our evacuation planning and resourcing. We have made great progress on this front by securing some volunteers to help with registrations, beginning the construction of a registration index that includes not only the names and contacts of residents in every home, but if they have already left Town, if they have pets and whether those pets are with them or remain behind. We have setup a call in line so that people can provide this information to us in advance so we can also update our evacuation plan to check off their home as clear, not clear, or pets remaining. In the event of an evacuation we would provide door to door checks and flag the doors with a coloured flag corresponding to the same clear, not clear, or pets remaining. We have confirmed all of our resourcing needed for a potential evacuation and developed a plan for registering and keeping track of everyone so we can ensure that in the event of an evacuation everyone gets to somewhere safe and has support from our team.
On the North West front, our fire department has been doing some great work securing that area from a potential Wildland Urban Interface event. We have cleared the grass from the Western fire guard and the north side of Highway 58 in the North West. We have deployed 4 large water bladders to support the deployment of sprinklers as a precaution. At this point we recognize the fire is moving away from the Town for the last two days, but we are putting resources in place in case of a change in those winds in the coming days. Our Fire Department conducted a sprinkler deployment exercise this afternoon putting some sprinklers up on homes on Swan Cres. We are also beginning to clear the fine fuels and debris along the property lines to the north of Town. Combined with our sprinkler deployment this will greatly aid in the protection of those homes in a fire event.
We remain in a holding pattern, watching the weather closely and using this time to plan and build out protections against a Wildland Urban Interface event. Our triggers remain the same, we are prepared and watching closely. We will continue to provide evening updates on the day’s activities each evening and any imminent updates immediately.
Please take this time, no different than ourselves, to plan your own households evacuation, so that if that time does come we can all be prepared and safe during this series of fire events across Alberta.
