The Town and MD of Bonnyville owe a huge debt of gratitude to the men and women from both our local fire departments and Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) for the tireless work they did to protect our homes from the wildfires that broke out last week near Forsyth Lake and Muriel Lake.
Without their efforts throughout the long nights, the losses suffered after the fires could have been devastating. The only pieces of property lost during these fires were fence posts. It could easily have gone the other way if the brave firefighters hadn't dug fire guards to keep the flames away from homes in the area, hadn't climbed in their helicopters and waterbombers and done their best to keep us safe.
It's only been a year since fire ravaged Slave Lake and if the winds had blown a different way, if luck hadn't been on our side, the same thing could easily have happened here.
While we're thanking the firefighters who deserve our gratitude for volunteering to keep us safe, we at the Nouvelle would also like to extend our sincere gratitude to our readers who sent in their photos and their updates on the fire, who shared their stories with us and checked in with us and with each other on our Facebook page. We want to thank the people who called the C2 during the evacuation and offered to volunteer, to help with whatever was needed. We would like to thank our readers who posted on Facebook offering each other a place to camp or a place to stay, who wished there was more they could do to help. You proved that nothing defines a community better than how they come together in times of crisis to check in, to make sure everyone's OK and if they aren't, to do whatever they can to help.
Thank you for helping us and for helping each other and for making sure everyone stayed safe and the firefighters could do their jobs.
Though these fires are under control, conditions are still dry with high winds, setting up a perfect situation for a vicious wildfire, like the ones we experienced last week.
We were lucky but next time we might not be. Respect the fire ban, be careful throwing away cigarettes and matches, clear away the debris underneath your quads and be cautious welding or doing anything that might set off a spark.
One spark is all it takes.
