The Lac St. Anne fire on Wednesday afternoon before it was contained Photo courtesy Facebook, Angela Phyllis Cassidy
A wildfire in Alberta that threatened the upcoming Lac St. Anne Pilgrimage, and homes on the Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation, was snuffed out by Wednesday night.
In the early afternoon on Wednesday, the blaze west of Edmonton caused an evacuation of houses and schools on the Alexis reserve as well as a nearby hamlet, which comprise the County of Lac Ste. Anne.
Pilgrimage organizer Stephanie Alexis said at one point, her father’s home on the reserve was under threat.
“The firemen saved all the homes,” she said. “One of my uncles had a bulldozer, he went over there and started pushing dirt back so he could save my dad’s house and yeah they did an incredible job. And it really brought the community together somehow because we didn’t want to see anyone’s house get burned down. It was scary.”
Alexis said she was significantly more concerned about the reserve than the pilgrimage grounds – the two areas are adjacent to each other and share the lake.
By Wednesday evening, rainfall and firefighting efforts provided relief that Alexis called “unbelievable, it was a miracle.
“A lot of people were praying ‘oh God, please stop this,’ because we were watching the news and we see what is happening in Fort McMurray and everybody is so concerned about it. And when our reserve starts going up in fire we’re really afraid. So we were praying a lot and somehow the rain came and helped put it out.”
Late Wednesday night, the order for the entirety of the County of Lac Ste. Anne was lifted and residents were told they could return home.
Alexis said this year’s pilgrimage will go ahead as planned for July 16 to 21. The native Catholic event attracts about 30,000 people, mainly from Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. A large number of attendees are First Nations and Metis.
Here is a video of that fire, taken on Wednesday.
With files from the Canadian Press