Rebuilding After Wildfire: Survivors Offer Jasper Encouragement, Advice

When a wildfire ripped through Slave Lake, Alberta, back in 2011, Shawn Gramlich and his wife did not evacuate until the power had gone out and the house across the street was on fire. “We never actually thought the fires were ever going to get close to Slave Lake. We really took it for granted,” Mr. Gramlich, now a city councillor for the small northern Alberta community of around 6,000 people, told The Epoch Times. Mr. Gramlich said town residents took a long time to evacuate because they had not been properly warned about the threat the wildfire posed. The fire ended up destroying 374 properties, including Mr. Gramlich’s home. The next few years were difficult, he said, but the town managed to rebuild and return to normalcy....