Wildfires 2017 - Waterton under mandatory evacuation

[Redliner]

Originally Posted by zztim81

and the wind is shifting now, died down a lot

Thank God for small miracles. Hopefully if the wind stops whipping this thing it will stay put or at least slow down until some moisture arrives.

Stay safe down there and best of luck to you...I hate being hundreds of Km away and just waiting for fate to play things out. Feels so effing helpless.

[Redliner]

unbelievable.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsl...57686542213804

[Buff]

Evacuation areas spread quickly from 12:30am to 1:15am but hasn't grown significantly since.

Looking at the satellite maps, it looks like the fire may have missed the Waterton toenails but I don't know the time those images are shown. We wait for news but we have hope!

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by zztim81

the backburn by the buffalo paddock was unneeded and reckless!

This went haywire with the Elephant Hill fire too (Ashcroft, BC). Ranchers/farmers/homeowners were beyond livid. I think they got lucky and didn't lose homes but it was damn close.

Is it safe to assume the buffalo were removed once the situation reached evacuation status for the townsite? I've kind of been wondering about them.

[surferguy]

Just saw an emergency alert on CBC about this fire. Castle mountain resort now under evac orders I guess

[Redliner]

My brother works emergency services for the MD of Pincher Creek and has been going pretty much non-stop for the past 48 hrs now. He also patrols at CMR in the winter and says Castle has had structural fire crews on standby for the last 3 days. As of late yesterday the nearest fire was on Rainy Ridge, ~8 Km away from the ski hill, but they were expecting it to grow last night. Last I heard from him at about 0400 this morning the fire was aggressively moving northwards towards the Castle area but I haven't heard anything since.

I know they have a fair amount of help down there right now (I heard almost 200 people in the Waterton area) but Cardston and Pincher are small communities and you'd have to think that fighting this thing on multiple fronts must have them stretched pretty thin.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Redliner

My brother works emergency services for the MD of Pincher Creek and has been going pretty much non-stop for the past 48 hrs now. He also patrols at CMR in the winter and says Castle has had structural fire crews on standby for the last 3 days. As of late yesterday the nearest fire was on Rainy Ridge, ~8 Km away from the ski hill, but they were expecting it to grow last night. Last I heard from him at about 0400 this morning the fire was aggressively moving northwards towards the Castle area but I haven't heard anything since.

I know they have a fair amount of help down there right now (I heard almost 200 people in the Waterton area) but Cardston and Pincher are small communities and you'd have to think that fighting this thing on multiple fronts must have them stretched pretty thin.

I can't find the tweet now to give the accurate numbers, but hundreds of firefighters from Calgary, Lethbridge, Taber, Coaldale etc. have all joined in to help this fight. Sounds like the numbers grew quite a bit after midnight.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Redliner

unbelievable.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsl...57686542213804

Ugh. My family has a cabin in the townsite which basically sits at the base of bears hump. These photos are hard to view. It appears that the beautiful hikes and trails along the road to Cameron are going to be distant memory soon.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Minnie

This went haywire with the Elephant Hill fire too (Ashcroft, BC). Ranchers/farmers/homeowners were beyond livid. I think they got lucky and didn't lose homes buy it was damn close.

Is it safe to assume the buffalo were removed once the situation reached evacuation status for the townsite? I've kind of been wondering about them.

They were moved to Grasslands National park.

[Buff]

Here is a satellite image showing where the fire is as of a few minutes ago:
(spoiler for size)

Spoiler!

[Violator]

Thats depressing that area is my favorite part of alberta

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Redliner

My brother works emergency services for the MD of Pincher Creek and has been going pretty much non-stop for the past 48 hrs now. He also patrols at CMR in the winter and says Castle has had structural fire crews on standby for the last 3 days. As of late yesterday the nearest fire was on Rainy Ridge, ~8 Km away from the ski hill, but they were expecting it to grow last night. Last I heard from him at about 0400 this morning the fire was aggressively moving northwards towards the Castle area but I haven't heard anything since.

I know they have a fair amount of help down there right now (I heard almost 200 people in the Waterton area) but Cardston and Pincher are small communities and you'd have to think that fighting this thing on multiple fronts must have them stretched pretty thin.

Castle Mountain Resort is on the list of mandatory evacuation as of 8:06am today:
http://emergencyalert.alberta.ca/ale...7/09/4603.html

[brocoli]

So, just to give everyone a quick update seeing as how I do live here. People were being evacuated as of 10pm last night. The first had ran so quickly in the wind sock that people had miscommunication and had minimal time at best.

Kudos the the firefighters fighting this along with all of the emergency personnel. The police have been doing a great job keeping people out and getting everyone prepared. The biggest worry that we have upcoming is that when they do contain this, because of its location is that its going to contaminate the Pincher Creek water supply.

[Redliner]

Water bombers flying continuously out of Pincher Creek this morning but the area they're trying to cover is huge. My brother says it's absolutely unbelievable how big this thing got, and how fast. No rain in the forecast until Thursday now and the wind will likely come up again this afternoon so it's going to get worse before it gets better.

The firefighters and emergency services are doing a hell of a job down there keeping people safe and doing what they can to protect property.

As for the townsite - the news coming out of there is pretty sporadic (I imagine they have other priorities at the moment) but I'm being told that the golf course, the Parks Canada barracks on the hill across from middle Waterton Lake, and the visitors centre at the base of Bears Hump have all been heavily damaged, as well as a house just outside the park gates. The townsite proper is still mostly intact at this time, but being basically surrounded by fire that could change at any moment.

[Buff]

I'm curious about where the fire fighters are. Did they all get evacuated out of the town or are there still some within the townsite fighting the fire?

I do know that they setup sprinkler systems around the town to keep things wet but not sure if somebody is still around or if they had to get out quickly.

[Huntingwhale]

Thanks for the effort in keeping up updated guys. Appreciate it and stay safe!

[brocoli]

The fire is still just circling the townsite. There is a water evac for those firefighters in the townsite. All that we are doing right here is praying the weather to stay exactly as it is right now. But no matter what with these dry conditions it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better still.

[Madman]

This video really shows the scale of the fire vs how they are fighting it:
https://twitter.com/TheDewser/status/907647357210071041

From the following Twitter user:
https://twitter.com/TheDewser

[Nyah]

I'm getting anxiety just looking at these photos. Waterton is my favourite place in Alberta. I hope everyone stays safe and the winds don't pick up...but it sure doesn't look good.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by brocoli

The fire is still just circling the townsite. There is a water evac for those firefighters in the townsite. All that we are doing right here is praying the weather to stay exactly as it is right now. But no matter what with these dry conditions it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better still.

Where are you located right now, brocoli?