City of Calgary, pet food bank offer help to wildfire evacuees

Over 29,000 Albertans have been forced from their homes as more than 100 wildfires continued to burn in the province on Sunday.

“This is a time for all Albertans to offer compassion to our neighbours, who may be in the path of the wildfires,” said Colin Blair, executive director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.

“It is time to demonstrate the kindness and collective resilience that our province is known for.”

As of 6:30 p.m. Sunday, there were 109 active wildfires, 28 of which were classified as out of control.

Emergency crews are prioritizing the fires near the Town of Edson, Grizzly Complex, the area of Entwistle, Evansburg, Wildwood and Hansonville, along with Fox Lake.

“We know structures have been lost, but our first priority is protecting lives and dealing with the emergency response first and foremost,” Blair said.

This comes one day after Premier Danielle Smith declared a state of emergency, giving the province access to emergency funds and better intergovernmental coordination t get the fires under control.  

Christie Tucker, Alberta Wildfire information unit manager, says rain and cooler conditions in some areas of the province are helping.

“It allowed firefighters to get a chance to work in the areas of some wildfires that they haven't been able to get close to because of extreme wildfire behaviour,” she said.

“We’re expecting this trend to continue over the next couple of days with cooler temperatures and higher humidity helping firefighters who are working in the south and central part of the province. Unfortunately, in the north of the province, they will continue to be challenged with the conditions that they’re seeing.”

Dozens of firefighters from Ontario and Quebec arrived in Alberta on Saturday and the province is asking for more help.

CITY OF CALGARY HELPS

As of Sunday, the City of Calgary deployed 12 members from its Canada Task Force 2, an all-hazards disaster response team, to Parkland County and the High Level area to help with the wildfire situation.

The members are working in various roles at the emergency operations centre and incident command posts.

The Alberta Emergency Management Agency and Alberta Wildfire requested their support late Friday.

The City is also preparing to welcome evacuees.

It is opening a reception centre on Monday and will share more details about it then. 

EVACUEE PET SUPPORT

The Animal Food Bank Foundation in Medicine Hat is packing up and sending out supplies for pets of wildfire evacuees, including food, medication, leashes, toys and other essentials.

“We’ve done also shipments of hay and chicken feed. If there’s an animal in need and my organization can help it, we will,” said Nicole Frey, founder of Animal Food Bank Foundation.

The non-profit has set up a GoFundMe page to cover the costs.

Frey says she saw the need for this type of response during the 2021 fires and floods in B.C.

“There’s no real solid coordinated plan to make sure that the pets are taken care of,” she said.

“It’s just a really stressful time so, if (evacuees) can walk into an evacuation centre and not have to worry about how their dog or cat or turtle is going to eat tonight, then that’s great.”

The most detailed and accurate evacuation information is being published by local authorities and on the Alberta Emergency Alert system.