SLAVE LAKE, AB – It’s the not knowing that really bothers Ric McLaren.
The general manager of Cable TV Slave Lake said Wednesday that three days after fire ravaged the town in which he has lived with his family for the last eight years was evacuated, he still doesn’t know for sure whether his home or his family-run cable TV business is still standing.
“We don’t know anything 100%, but we’re 99% sure that our office and our headend is intact,” he told Cartt.ca in a phone interview. “The only real information that we’ve got has been through Facebook and photo albums and what they’ve shown on the news. The large part of our plant is either gone or damaged. In the southeast area, none of our equipment had a chance, along with the homes there.”
Massive wildfires engulfed the town, located 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, over the weekend, resulting in a mandatory evacuation of its approximately 7,000 residents late Sunday. More than a third of Slave Lake’s homes, plus the town hall, government centre and local radio station, have been destroyed. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
While it’s unclear when the residents will be allowed to return, McLaren (pictured) is optimistic that he’ll be able to conduct a quick assessment of the business in the next few days.
“We’re waiting and hoping that myself and one of my technicians will be allowed in to start an inspection and unplug the head end for when they restore power, but I truly don’t know (when that will be)”, he continued. “We want to go in and save what equipment we can and figure out what parts of plant have been lost so that we can start the ordering process of new cable and new fibre, but we’re kind of at a standstill right now, and don’t know what’s gone.”
McLaren, who’s staying with family friends in Barrhead, said that the company’s main fibre line runs through town and is located directly behind structures that have been damaged by fire. “That’s our main connection to SuperNet (the province’s high-speed broadband network), and our Internet and phone services are connected to that, but we don’t know the state of that.”
What McLaren does know is that Cable TV Slave Lake will be back and fully operational as soon as emergency personnel give the green light to return and power to the town is restored.
“When word of the fire got out, Camrose (the company’s head office) started receiving calls from contractors asking when they can come up and help us rebuild”, he added. “We’ve had a conference call with the owners on a game plan, but have to get in there first to assess what we’ve lost. But we’re 100% committed to rebuilding. I’ve been in Slave Lake for eight years and I have no plans to leave, even if my house is one of the ones that were levelled. We intend to be there for the long run.”
Across town, NewCap Broadcasting-owned local radio station 92.7 Lake FM burned to the ground (pictured), but it continues to keep the community posted on the latest wildfire news.
Morning show host Paul Allen and news director/co-host Courtney Murphy continued to update the station’s web site and Facebook page even as they were moved to a clearing outside of town after the station went up in flames. The duo are now working out of temporary digs at CFXE The Eagle in Edson.
Rob Alexander, program director for Newcap Radio Alberta Northwest told Cartt.ca that the station’s transmitter, which is located several kilometres outside of Slave Lake, was not affected by the fire, which has allowed the station’s audio feed to stay on air at 92.7 FM via the Edson facilities.
“We are very proud of our folks and what they did there,” he said. “They stayed on the air broadcasting as long as it was humanly possible providing people with the latest official updates. There are always conflicting reports in a situation like this, put our people were very dedicated and very good at communicating with the local emergency officials and putting the official word out, right up until the time that they could no longer broadcast and left the station after power was cut to the town. And the station was in danger of burning down and did, in fact, burn down not long after they left it. I can’t say enough about the dedication of those people who stayed there right to the end and even longer after we were off the air.”
Alexander said that the company is planning to set up a temporary broadcasting facility in Slave Lake as soon as possible.
“We’re taking it one day at a time right now”, he continued. “Our goal is to have people on the ground and in Slave Lake as soon as that is possible and we’re very hopeful that will be just a matter of days.”
Added Murphy of her experience: “To be honest I wasn’t really even thinking about the fire that was happening. I was first and most importantly thinking about my community and the listeners and keeping them up to date with all of the information that I was receiving from the mayor, sustainable resource development, the crews and the police. It didn’t even register in my head what was going on – I essentially had my game face on and didn’t have time to really feel emotion.”
Telus (which responded very quickly) fared a little better than its cable counterpart in surviving the fire. “Our office was on fire but the firefighters doused it and saved the equipment room,” regional general manager Derek Keturakis told Cartt.ca in an interview.
While it’s still unclear how much of the Telus wireline infrastructure was destroyed, its cell towers were unaffected. “The core of the mobility network in and around Slave Lake has been unaffected,” he added, saying the biggest challenge was getting diesel generators to each tower since the power is still out.
The fire’s aftermath is “the strangest thing you’ll ever see,” added Keturakis. “You’ll drive through neighbourhoods and they’ll be okay and there’s just one house that’s burned. Then you’ll see the exact opposite across the street where the entire neighbourhood is down except for one house.”
– With files from Greg O’Brien
– Fire photos from 92.7 Lake FM web site
