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Vol. 70, Issue 82
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A Nanny With A Difference
Katie Brown and Kyle Lomon
Kimberley couple flee Ft. Mac flames C AROLYN GRANT
Over 80,000 people fled the fire in Fort McMurray this week, and there is a personal story behind each one of them. Kyle Lomon, born and raised in Kimberley, and now working as a firefighter at one of the oilfield sites, spoke to the Kimberley Bulletin from an evacuation centre in Edmonton on Thursday morning. Lomon, and his partner Katie Brown, also from Kimberley, who works at the Northern Lights Regional
Health Centre as a nurse, evacuated Fort McMurray on Tuesday evening. Before they left, they lent a hand with the hospital evacuation. “Katie was supposed to work that night but she wasn’t on shift yet,” he said. “We wanted to do something to help, so we quickly packed up the house and the dogs and went to the hospital and helped evacuate the patients.”
ALEESHA KOERSEN PHOTO
THE POPPINS IS BACK. Wild Drama’s major spring production — “Mary Poppins” — opened Thursday, May 5, at the Key City Theatre. The broadway classic runs again Friday, Saturday (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday (2:30 p.m.) See more, Page 11. Above: Presley Armstrong as Mary and Noah Tonge as Burt.
See KIMBERLEY, Page 4
Preparing for wildfire season in the region
Preparedness key to successful evacuation in case fire threatens your home, RDEK advises
See WILDFIRE, Page 4
ALEESHA KOERSEN PHOTO
HYPERCHONDRIAC WITH A CAPITAL h: Felix Unger’s friends — including Oscar Madison — are frantic with concern over the dire straits he finds himself in. Cranbrook Community Theatre’s “The Odd Couple” opens tonight, Friday, May 6, at the Studio Stage Door, and runs over the next three weekends. Featuring Bob Wakulich, Peter Schalk, Andrea Grossman, Michelle McCue, Alexander Gilmour, Barry Borgstrom, Randy Tapp, Barry Coulter. See more in Tuesday’s Townsman. ight 9 H sN o e i
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bers and pets with only clothes on their back. Though there isn’t a city as large as Fort McMurray in the East Kootenay, officials with the Southeast Fire Centre and the Regional District of East Kootenay stress the importance of being prepared and having an evacuation plan.
Tin
TREVOR CRAWLEY
The scope of the destruction in Fort McMurray is unprecedented, and also the speed at which the fire has advanced towards, and into, the city itself. Highways were jammed and cars were running out of gas on the streets during the largest evacuation in Alberta history. Some residents had no time to pack, escaping with family mem-
GOLF, CART,
GOLF, CART,
Tuesday
Wednesday
Dinner, PRIZES !
Dinner, PRIZES !