LOCAL NEWS: COMMUNITY FOREST PROFITS UP ▼ A3
Times
Thursday, May 12, 2016 ▼ Volume 52 No. 19 ▼ www.clearwatertimes.com ▼ $1.35 Includes GST
T E THE
NORTH THOMPSON
DUTCH LAKE PIONEER:
2014
CCNA BLUE RIBBON
The story of Jack Harby. See A19 inside.
First Place Best All Round Newspaper & Best Editorial Page Second Place Best Front Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation 2014 First Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation 2014
Fort McMurray fire is "unbelievable"experience
Soccer girls host Raiders Cup
Father and son return safely home after being evacuated from Fort McMurray wildfire
Clearwater Secondary School girls soccer player dribbles the ball away from a player from Vanderhoof's Nechako Valley Secondary School during the Raiders Cup tournament last weekend. For more photos, go to page A12. Photo by Keith McNeill
Keith McNeill Clearwater resident Tom Grimm and his son, Brue, recently returned home after being evacuated from Fort McMurray. “Compared to Fort Mac, 2003 was just a campfire,” according to the elder Grimm. Tom was comparing the forest fire that forced the evacuation last week of that northern Alberta town with the fire of 13 years ago that destroyed Louis Creek and forced the evacuation of much of the lower North Thompson Valley. Grimm, a heavy equipment operator, had experience fighting both. The fire behaviour at Fort McMurray was much more extreme, he said, and the dam-
Brue Grimm (l) and his father, Tom Grimm, relax in Clearwater after being evacuated from Fort McMurray recently. Quite a few local residents work in or have family connections with the northern Alberta city. Photo by Keith McNeill
age to homes and property far more extensive. “I was on top of a hill they call Super Test in Fort Mac,” he recalled. “I looked toward town and it looked as if three or four volcanoes were going off.” At one point the fire jumped the divided highway, the green meridians alongside it, plus the Athabaska River. “Then it just took off towards Saskatchewan,” Grimm said. The Clearwater man spent several days
building fire guards within the city. “I saw milliondollar homes going up in flames,” he said. “Hundreds of them, one after another.” Grimm had been working at an oil sands mine about 35 km north of Fort McMurray when the dispatcher on the radio told them a state of emergency had been declared in the city. They were told to bring all their equipment into a staging area. Because of his experience fighting
forest fires, the elder Grimm was assigned to building fire guards in Fort McMurray. He had just about finished his shift before the emergency was declared and so he ended up working 38 hours straight. He then took seven hours off, worked another 36 straight hours, and only then joined the evacuation. “There’s nothing left green in Fort Mac to burn,” he reported. His son Brue is a heavy duty mechanic. Continued on page A2
Town council to meet at high school Keith McNeill
Clearwater town council will meet in a new venue for its May 17 meeting – Clearwater Secondary School. The purpose of holding the meeting at the school will be to demonstrate to students how council works, said Mayor John Harwood. “We hope to develop in them an appetite for service,” he said. Harwood noted that the municipality has developed a healthy relationship with the school. Councillor Shelley Sim said that because town council normally meets during the afternoon, it is difficult for members of junior council and other students to
Highway 5 Little Fort, BC 250-677-4441
Highway 5 Clearwater, BC 250-674-3148
Located on Highway 5
attend. She hoped the experience would encourage young people to participate in local politics. “There’s not a lot of glory in it, certainly not a lot of money in it, but you can make a difference,” Sim said. Chief administrative officer Leslie Groulx noted that the meetings at the school will be held during Local Government Week. The town council meetings will be held in conjunction with a junior council meeting to held during the school’s lunch hour. A meeting of Clearwater town council’s infrastructure standing committee will start at 1 p.m. while the regular council meeting will begin at 2 p.m.