Courtesy of the Town of Rainbow Lake:
May 15 2023 – There have been no structures lost in Town and no one has been hurt. We still do not have power here in Town and do not expect that to be restored anytime soon. Communications are limited due to the loss of cell service, but our crews are still communicating with each other via radio. We also have a few Starlink units setup, providing Wi Fi internet access to allow for access outside of our immediate area.
Since the last update, the fire continued to burn to the North along our Eastern guard and West along the highway. On the Southeast side, we still have burning ~750 metres East of the Cenovus office. It was a quiet day for our Fire crew as they maintained patrols and ensured nothing catches us by surprise.
With this update I wanted to let everyone know that when I say “our Fire crew”, I do not just mean our Rainbow Lake Fire Department, we have people and resources from a number of communities who are here standing alongside us protecting your community. Those communities are:
Dene Tha’ First Nation
Town of High Level
Town of Barrhead
Town of Westlock
Town of Didsbury
Town of Carstairs
Town of Sundre
Town of Olds
Village of Cremona
Mountain View County
We are incredibly grateful to these communities for answering the call and coming to help protect our home. We are also assisted by Cenovus Energy in a big way who is making sure this community is safe.
We have some local businesses and contractors that have been helping out as well and deserve to be recognized for the hard work they are putting in:
RJ’s Crossroads
Esso
Noralta
Billy & Boyz Trucking
Bateman Petroleum
RKM
Warner Trucking
Silvertip Oilfield Services
Wasp Manufacturing
Fire and Flood
B Mitchell Associates
TT’s Transport
On the Alberta Wildfire side, they have also pulled in resources from across Canada and the United States with our own Alberta and Ontario crews being assisted with fire fighters from Alaska, Montana and Oregon. We are also receiving support from the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, Alberta Transportation, RCMP and Alberta Health Services.
We have the resources, people and coordination we need to save Rainbow Lake. We are expecting a rough afternoon and evening here, but we are prepared.
I would also like to open it up to our residents that have specific questions that they would like addressed in the updates to email me at dfletcher@rainbowlake.ca and so long as we stay quiet here, I will try to address them as best I can for everyone with the following update.
We do ask that everyone call in and register with our reception team at 1-780-560-0164 if you have not already.
Please stay safe and we will continue to push out daily updates here and on our Town of Rainbow Lake Facebook page.
