Grass fire burned 4 homes in Samson Cree Nation, Ermineskin Cree Nation
CBC
An ashen wooded area stands mere feet from Flora Northwest's home on Samson Cree Nation.
She is thankful it is still standing.
She had taken half a day off of work Friday to bring her grandson into town. On their way home, she said her grandson spotted wildfire.
The flames were high and spread quickly, Northwest said. She and her grandson weren't home five minutes before the fire consumed an abandoned house and her brother's home, then moved toward her house.
"Come on, we have to go," Northwest recalled exclaiming to her grandson.
They rushed into her vehicle to leave, she said, as firefighters arrived — saving her house.
"It's so hard to get housing here. It's so hard to get renovations here. To burn houses like that, it's not fair for the family, because we don't have that kind of money for housing," Northwest said.
"We're very lucky to have our houses."
A wildfire around Maskwacis, Alta., roughly 80 kilometres south of Edmonton, burned down four houses on Friday: the two on Samson Cree Nation and two others on the neighbouring Ermineskin Cree Nation.
The fire, which sparked the Maskwacis Fire Department to declare a state of emergency, took hours for firefighters from multiple agencies to get under control.
In a post on social media Friday, Samson Cree First Nation said all those affected were to go to the Howard Buffalo Memorial Centre in Maskwacis. SCN staff and Red Cross were on hand to assist the evacuees, and anyone who needed more information could call 780-585-3012.
Northwest said she helped her sister, who lives with a disability, evacuate her home.
According to 511 Alberta, Highway 611 between 2 Mile Road and 3 Mile Road in Samson Cree Nation was closed due to the nearby grass fire. Those roads reopened around 9 p.m.
Millet Fire Department Capt. Justin Rider could see the smoke from his town, roughly 30 kilometres north of Maskwacis.
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