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‘Everything’s burned’
Arena garage sale today
FIREFIGHTER WHO LOST HOME VOWS TO REBUILD IN FORT MCMURRAY
BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS FORT MCMURRAY — For firefighter Mark Stephenson, the Alberta oilsands capital is his home and he plans to rebuild on the same spot where his house went up in flames. “I’m not leaving Fort McMurray. I’m a Fort McMur- Oilsands ray firefighter,” production set Stephenson said T u e s d a y w h i l e to resume helping clean up Page A8 one of the city’s fire halls. “I love this place. I plan on staying.” With his voice raspy from days of breathing in smoke, the 43-year-old recalled how one week ago he helplessly watched his own house burn. He then stuffed away his emotions and went back to work. He’s one of several city firefighters who lost their homes, but carried on to save other houses when a roaring wildfire spread into the city. The blaze forced more than 80,000 residents to flee. About 2,400 buildings were torched, but 25,000 were saved, including the hospital, municipal buildings and schools. That’s a good 90 per cent of the city. Stephenson, a former Edmonton soldier who joined the fire department eight years ago, said he and his colleagues dubbed the fire “the beast” because of how quickly it spread. “It was just all of a sudden flash heat and trees exploding and popping,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was alive and it was breathing and eating at a rapid pace.” When he got to his neighbourhood of Abasand, Stephenson’s neighbours’ fences were on fire. He grabbed a chain saw from his garage and started cutting down the fences and nearby trees. When he discovered the fire hydrants had run dry, he and other firefighters used garden hoses but they were useless.
See STEPHENSON on Page A8
Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
For firefighter Mark Stephenson, shown in this handout image, the Alberta oilsands capital is his home and he plans to rebuild on the same spot where his house went up in flames. ‘I’m not leaving Fort McMurray. I’m a Fort McMurray firefighter,’ Stephenson said Tuesday while helping clean up one of the city’s fire halls.
Take home a piece of history from the Red Deer Arena garage sale today. Items that have not been repurposed, such as the bench seating, will be available for purchase at the arena (4725D 43 Street) from 5 to 9 p.m. Barb McKee, the city’s Recreation Superintendent, said many items have been moved to other city facilities, repurposed or sold to other Central Alberta municipalities. “We spent a lot of time to make sure everything that we are decommissioning out of the rink finds a new home,” she said. “What’s left over is stuff that other municipalities or other departments within the city do not have a use for. That could be old desks or the rink board glass or some of the planking for the benches would be available.” It could be simple things like old mop buckets to bulletin boards that are as old as the facility, said McKee. The city will use the elevator, for example, in a new facility. McKee said the city has also found use for the 17 home-style furnaces that used to heat the building. “Some of them are very old and need to go,” said McKee. “Some of them are relatively new and we are going to re-purpose them in the activity centres around Red Deer that have some older equipment. The score clock has come down and we’re looking at a way to maybe reuse it in the new arena.” Large items, including ice making equipment and the score clock, will be up for auction online and details provided after the sale. Any proceeds will go towards the construction of the new downtown arena. The site will be turned over to a contractor for decommission in the next two weeks. Set to open in 2018, the new downtown arena, will offer gathering spaces and an indoor walking track for the community. The new facility is also being designed to meet energy and environmental standards for a greener and more efficient operation. crhyno@reddeeradvocate.com
Pulse crops growing in popularity as seeding gets underway BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF More peas please! Farmers seem to have been listening to that request as more are seeding the major specialty crop this spring, Harry Brook, crop specialist with the Alberta Ag-Info Centre in Stettler, said Tuesday. But rather than a sign that fussy children are suddenly liking their greens, the reason is simple — last year’s pea crop garnered very good prices, he said. Over the winter, yellow peas were in the $12 per bushel range, and at 40 to 60 bushels an acre, “It was paying a heck of a lot better than canola,” he said. “It’s a stimulus response you
might say. Like Pavlov’s dog.” Lentils were also extremely valuable last year and anyone who did grow them “made out like a bandit,” Brook said. India uses a lot of pea flour to make food products and their winter crops did not do so well because of poor weather. So the country looked to Canada for more peas. While the United Nations has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses — crops such as yellow, green and chick peas, lentils, and faba beans — canola and wheat remain by far the main crops grown in the Central region.
Please see SEED on Page A8
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Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
A farmer prepares a field south west of Red Deer for seeding on Tuesday afternoon.
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