ATHABASCA — Breanna Mackenzie has been a resident of Boyle since she was five years old, calling the small village home for the last 21 years. But for 36 hours last week, she hoped she, her two young children, and volunteer firefighter husband would still have a home and a village to return to.
Mackenzie said Tuesday, May 6 started as a normal day for the young family of four. Sounds of fire engine sirens and calls over her husband’s fire department radio are not out of the ordinary, but as she geared up her young daughter for soccer practice, the view out of her kitchen window sparked a foreboding feeling.
“I saw an orange hue in the horizon,” Mackenzie told the Athabasca Advocate on May 7 from the safety of her sister’s home near Athabasca. “Usually this stuff doesn’t really bother me, but for some reason something in the pit of my stomach was a little bit more on the worried side.”
With soccer practice cancelled, her husband out on the call, and emergency alerts from the village and county warning of potential evacuation buzzing through cell phones for much of the afternoon and evening, Mackenzie said she first packed up the essentials, and then tried to calm her nerves.
The young mother of two got a marginal head start on evacuation before the official order was given at 10:49 p.m. on Tuesday, seven hours after the first one-hour alert was issued. Instead of hopping on a bus to head east to Lac La Biche and the dedicated evacuation centre, the trio plus Mackenzie’s grandma came west to stay with family.
While Mackenzie and her young children — one newly three and another with a fifth birthday approaching soon — took the days one hour at a time, she said concern for her husband Christopher Mackenzie lived in the back of her mind the entire time.
“Last night was a little rough. I called him yesterday and I just begged him, just please, please be safe,” said Mackenzie. “I’ve definitely been worried, but I’m glad that he is able to send a text here and there just to let me know that he’s safe.”
35 hours after the late Tuesday night evacuation order, Mackenzie was relieved to get notice re-entry would begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday. In a follow-up interview on May 9, she said despite the heightened emotions, exhaustion and out-of-the-ordinary situation, the last few days had been quite typical.
“I don’t want to use the word normal, but it was our normal. We were still at my sisters, the kids are handling it very well, so I was grateful for that. My grandmother was handling it well,” she said.
“I was on and off emotional, I was good all (Wednesday) up until about dinner time, realizing we’re not at home yet and my husband was still fighting it. It just felt a little lonely in a way.”
After getting home on the Thursday afternoon and checking their appliances and water, Mackenzie said her focus for the next few days will be getting back to their regular routine; by Friday, she had laundry in the wash to prepare for the upcoming week, and volunteer firefighter Christopher was back at his regular job.
“Honestly though, it felt a little weird, it kind of felt like the whole thing was a fever dream, even being at home,” said Mackenzie. “I kind of wanted to go back to my sisters.”
In all, despite the higher-than-usual anxiety this wildfire inspired in her and many others, the young mother and long-time Boyle resident said she was relieved the ordeal was over for her family and community as a whole, thanks to the efforts of men and women like her husband.
“I’m just glad we have awesome resources available for us to the help the fire department, and I’m just happy everyone is home safe, all my family is happy too.”
An eventful evacuation
Photographer and artist Denise Lang-Wells and her husband were two of the many village evacuees, but the couple had a much different experience than the Mackenzies in the last week.
Both business owners, Lang-Wells said she and husband had a busy Tuesday afternoon following the announcement of the fire and potential evacuation packing up expensive equipment and essential medications.
Recalling stories about the 2016 Fort McMurray evacuations, she didn’t want to be forced east of town towards Lac La Biche, but instead had plans to travel south to Edmonton where a friend could house their aging cat.
“I’m a professional photographer, I was going to take my cameras, no matter what,” said Lang-Wells in a May 9 interview. But she wasn’t able to pack up everything near and dear to her heart.
“We have two exotic reptiles, we have snakes. One of them is almost nine feet long, and we had to leave her … nobody is going to house a nine foot snake,” she said. “We left them here and I cried all the way to the city.”
Lang-Wells and her husband made the call to leave Boyle 20 minutes before official evacuation was ordered. While not a huge head start, she said those 20 minutes gave the couple time to gas up their two vehicles at the Co-op, where she noticed one local’s behaviour in particular.
“There was one young man, he’s I believe the youngest employee at the Co-op Gas Bar here. I don’t know who he is and I don’t know his name, but I really think he deserves a lot of credit and a lot of kudos.”
Lang-Wells said the young man stayed calm while pumping gas and organizing traffic for the many residents preparing for evacuation, a demeanour that in turn kept drivers and passengers calm, too.
“Whoever he is, if anybody knows of him, that boy deserves a raise.”
But after the pair fuelled up and made their way to Edmonton, the chaos followed. Driving separately, the couple were heading to their hotel when Lang-Wells was involved in a vehicle collision that left her Jeep likely totalled and the photographer with physical trauma along with the emotional impact of leaving their home and animals behind.
“Our stress from it is a little more than just the evacuation,” said Lang-Wells. “It’s hard to separate the two because one happened because of the other, so we’re trying to recover from both.”
Lang-Wells and her husband were relieved to be able to return to their home across from the Boyle hospital on Thursday, where they found their eight-and-a-half foot common boa constrictor and five-foot corn snake as well as the day they had left.
Also untouched was the commercial space she plans to turn into a passport, photo ID and printing business — a space she signed an agreement for just hours before the wildfire ignited and accelerated to threaten the village.
Now home with her pets and healing from her injuries, Lang-Wells is also eager to get back into the regular swing of things, and didn’t let a possible concussion and whiplash stop her.
In addition to finding answers about cost recuperation — a process she said has been unclear since registering as an evacuee — her and her husband have plans to commemorate the efforts of all the volunteers who made returning home possible.
“I was cursing out living here, I was looking to move,” said Denise. Now, after three days living under threat of having her home destroyed, her tune has changed. “I don’t think I’ll move, I think I’ll live here forever.
“This a community that fought for their own and they fought for the town, and our firefighters are unpaid.”
As a gesture of thanks for the efforts of all the volunteers who helped keep the blaze at bay, Lang-Wells and her husband are hand-crafting a custom wood plaque for the firefighters as a token of an event that will no doubt go down in the village’s history.
“We’re going to present it to the fire department as a thank you for saving our community and our neighbours and our friends and us, and evacuating us with enough time to keep us safe.”
Small town support
A litany of local individuals, organizations and contractors posted and offered a wide range of services and supports for Boyle evacuees leading up to and well after evacuation was ordered.
The Athabasca Ag Society, Athabasca Lions, and Thistle Ridge Ranch, an animal rescue southeast of Athabasca, and countless rural residents not impacted by the evacuation offered camping spots, as well stable and barn space for any livestock in need of placement.
Rich Aitzetmueller of Gearhead Garage in Caslan offered space for anyone in need of a place to stay or store their trucks, trailers or anything in the yard, and was even available for hauling or pick up services for those in need of transport.
Aitzetmueller said after experiencing the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, he knows the value of community support and giving back. The lack of services and fuel availability for those evacuating made the journey that much more uncertain, and only after a friend reached out with an offer for help did the Aitzetmueller’s get safety out of the burning northern Alberta city.
Shows of support even came from as far as Edmonton. Priyank Patel, owner of Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria on Jasper Avenue, was quick to extend a helping hand to the community after hearing about the fire from friends in the area.
Patel’s posts on social media encouraged any Boyle residents travelling to Edmonton to contact him, and said he was willing and able to meet requests for “anything and everything,” be it for hotel accommodation, a meal, or more.
“If anyone needs any kinds of supplies for kids, adults, any supplies at all, we got it,” said Patel. “Anyone who doesn’t have friends or family, or don’t know or are panicking where they should go, we can accommodate them as well.”
While he doesn’t have first-hand experience with a wildfire evacuation, Famoso Pizzeria showed similar support for displaced Jasper residents last summer, and Patel said he strongly empathized with the residents of Boyle on a level beyond language.
“When you have to leave your belongings and your house behind, it’s that feeling that you cannot express in words. We just want to be there for our fellow Albertans, we want to do everything we can to even make one per cent better change in this stressful and panicking situation.”
