Olds RCMP Const. Lyle Korver was one of several RCMP officers who went up to Fort McMurray to help out after the city was hit by a giant wildfire in early May.
He gave an account of that experience during an Olds Rural Crime Watch Association (ORCWA) meeting May 25 in Mountain View County council chambers.
Korver said he was attending an annual training session in Wainwright when they got a call for RCMP officers to help out at Fort McMurray. He and six others responded.
They were supposed to fly into Fort McMurray, but conditions were too smokey so they were diverted to a different location, then diverted again to Firebag, 41 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
“Our initial thing is we went door to door and canvassed the neighbourhoods; all the houses that were still standing that weren't damaged, just to ensure the health and safety of people. In some cases we fed pets as we found them and were able,” Korver said.
“We weren't going into homes, we weren't seizing anything or securing any property.
“Any people who were in there who couldn't evacuate and people who were there and refused to evacuate, we made a note of it so that if anything further happened, we'd have a detailed list of who was still in the city,” Korver added. “Most people left, but there were still quite a few there.”
Other officers manned checkpoints and dealt with security.
“There's vandalism starting to happen; there are people who refused to leave, there are homeless people who are sort of hiding out in the city -- opportunists is a nice word, I guess,” he said.
“So there are roving patrols day and night – on patrol 24-7, just to make sure that more stuff is not stolen. Stuff is getting stolen. I mean, you can't be everywhere at once, unfortunately.”
Korver said he – and other RCMP officers -- put in some long hours at the job.
“(They were) long days, short nights when you're up there. I was putting in 18-hour days for my eight days I was up there. The other guys, they got shorter days; they were down to about 14 or 15 (hour days),” he said.
“Twelve-hour shifts plus an hour commute, plus an hour of breathing is what makes it a 15-hour day. Those are the short days. I talked to the firefighters and they put in longer hours yet when they were up there.
“It's still ongoing,” Korver added. “We'll be sending members up there for quite a while yet I think, on a rotating basis.”
Sleeping was a challenge, Korver indicated.
“I got the tour. I was up there for seven nights and I slept in six different beds,” he said, sparking laughter. “Most of that was just due to the logistical nightmare for the powers that be.
“I mean, there were all of us who were there plus there were ATCO people up there, just trying to restore power and gas,” Korver said. “We got evacuated to two different camps.”
The fire forced some abortive – and some real – evacuations.
“The one night I got my door knocked on at 9 o'clock. Then (at) about 10:30, 11 again, we got evacuated and then no, false alarm, misinformation. Then at 4 o'clock it was for real,” Korver said.
“You open (the door into) the hallway. Those camps have a long hall and wings off of it with your rooms, and the whole hall was smoke.”
As a result of his tour in the Fort McMurray area, Korver's stuff smelled of smoke, not a welcome experience for others around him when he got home.
“When I came home finally after eight days of living in that environment – I had my bedding up there -- my pillow -- and when I crawled into bed, my wife kicked my pillow out of bed because it smelled of smoke,” Korver said, sparking more laughter.
“All your gear just reeked. The inside of our vehicles just stunk,” he added.
Korver said RCMP officers took their vehicles to a vehicle dealership to be cleaned out.
He couldn't believe how dirty they were.
“It wasn't one of ours, but I saw a filter from another Fort Mac vehicle and the filter was as black as the chairs you're sitting on,” he said.
While up in the Fort McMurray area, Korver attended morning briefings at 8 a.m. He said at that time, the smoke would be so thick and low it would totally obscure objects several metres away.
“We had several days like that where it was hanging in -- in that whole river valley, the whole city. So the smoke damage is going to be (significant),” he said.
“Even if your house wasn't burnt, I'm convinced you're going to have smoke damage. It's just going to seep in; you can't keep it out completely. (Through) your dryer vent, your furnace vent, it's going to seep into your home. So even if your house wasn't burnt you're going to have a mess to clean up.”
Korver said when they get back, evacuees whose houses weren't burnt will have to throw out their fridges and deep freezes, because the power was off for several days, so all the food in there will have to go.
He saw that first-hand when he was in Slave Lake, which was ravaged by a forest fire in 2011.
“(People from) the town or whoever – went around. As people came back in, they gave them rolls of duct tape and you just duct-taped your fridge shut. Keep it tight. Don't even open it; don't even try to look in it. Duct tape it shut, bring it to the curb,” Korver said.
“And all through town there are just fridges and deep freezes and then they come with a big payloader and just grapple 'em and dump 'em. Just dumpstered 'em all. Landfilled them all. You can't do anything with them; you have to get all new (fridges and deep freezes, etc.). You can't get that smell out.”
A member of the ORCWA predicted the smoke will damage Korver's lungs.
“I was lucky. I worked in the command post, which was a big, tandem axle, freightliner RV-type-thing, so I was inside most of the time, doing planning, logistics-type stuff,” Korver said.
He noted fellow RCMP officers who were outside in Fort McMurray and surrounding area did have masks, however many of those masks were paper ones, like the kind people buy when doing drywall sanding, etc.
“Paper dust masks don't do anything for smoke particles,” he said. “So yeah, I know one guy who was up there with that. He went out later with a bit of a cough, went to the doctor. He had a lung infection.
“Yeah, there'll be some guys who will have some health issues, for sure. Us and the firefighters and the utilities guys – everybody,” Korver added. We each tried to wear a mask as much as possible, but you're sleeping in it, you know.”
On the bright side, he said, Olds and area experienced comparatively little crime while he was gone.
I was putting in 18-hour days for my eight days I was up there."CONST. LYLE KORVEROLDS RCMP
