New measures have been put in place to prevent another disaster

A year after the fires that wiped out a third of Slave Lake, the northern Alberta town is in a better position to combat out-of-control blazes. But the wounds to louis vuitton shoes its collective psyche are still healing. “It’s been the most challenging and frustrating year that you can ever imagine,” says Shelly Cuthbert, seated in the sunroom of her newly rebuilt house, while outside, her husband flattens mounds of dirt in a skid steer. “It’s just now you realize that everything is settling down.” The Cuthberts built their new home on the spot where their previous one burned to the ground in the fire that ravaged the community a year ago Tuesday. It was designed without front windows to avoid a view of the charred, skeletal remains of what was once a lush patch of trees. On their property in Widewater, a hamlet about 20 kilometres northwest of Slave Lake, a pole flying an unscathed Canadian flag remains intact, symbolic of the wildfire’s scattered path. In Slave Lake, homes that suffered little damage sit on the same block as houses that crumbled to ash. Neighbourhoods in several parts of town are in different phases of resurrection. Of the 333 single-family homes that were lost, 209 building permits have been filed so far to replace them. There is a plan underway for a 116-unit apartment building to replace the 169 units in louis vuitton hair pins multi-family complexes that were destroyed. While some families have already moved into new houses, lawyer Phil Lokken is anxious to get construction underway to replace the home he and his wife Laura had lived in for 22 years. “It was a numb feeling for a few months,” Lokken said. “We weren’t ready to start rebuilding.” Along with residential losses, the fire wiped out 10 businesses, three churches, the library and the town hall. Total damages came to $742 million, making it the second biggest insurable disaster in Canada after the 1998 Quebec ice storm. The province has committed $289 million to the recovery. A large chunk of that money is going to infrastructure repairs. “The community has a reduced capacity to function normally,” Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee says. “We know that. We know we’re creating a new normal.” There are also opportunities to give residents more cheap burberry bags than they had before. There’s a proposal to replace a slo-pitch field with a multi-recreational facility, and another for a family centre that can double as an evacuation centre. The rebuilding comes as Slave Lake faces a new round of extreme wildfire warnings. The unpredictable threats of dry forests, low humidity and strong winds loom constantly around the northern Alberta town. But new measures have been put in place to prevent another disaster. Eighty-eight firefighters — 80 volunteers, eight paid — are now part of region’s wildfire backstop, up from 63 last year. The town gets $20 million from the province for a program called FireSmart, which encourages residents to safeguard their homes against fires and provides new firefighting equipment. And every Monday until the end of the month, firefighters burn off dry grass in the area as a preventive measure. The recovery has exceeded Pillay-Kinnee’s expectations. But any victory cry at this stage is muted. “You don’t want to necessarily celebrate your successes,” she said. “People are still hurting and coping and trying to move on.” As residents look ahead, the RCMP continues to burberry watches search for clues in its arson investigation. It’s been six months since Sustainable Resource Development officers ruled out all other causes of the wildfire and handed the case over to RCMP.