Monday, July17 – Day 11 of the fires in and around Little Fort. The air was hazy with smoke. The drive through the valley was hazy and when I got to Little Fort, it was still hazy. But - no visible plumes of smoke, no helicopters or water bombers flying around - it looks and sounds very quiet. Maybe, just maybe, the worst is over for our area of B.C. Traffic is busy, though, with fire crews traveling through, a few more evacuees, and even some tourists coming through, many trying to get to Jasper or points beyond. They stop at the store to check if we know whether or not the roads are open. We get to close the store at the normal time of 9:30 p.m. Then I’m off for my two days, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thursday, July 20 – Today, it is overcast, and some of the clouds are low enough on the hills that it’s hard to tell if they are clouds, or smoke. I have to turn the wipers on in the Darfield area, as it is actually raining! I’m headed for my sister’s place first, before we both go to work (Sylvia works at Jim’s Food Market as well, and today we are both on the closing shift). She lives in a trailer in Little Fort, just off of Highway 24. We have lunch, play a few games of scrabble, and just as we are getting ready to head to work, the rain starts. Now, this isn’t the light, drizzly sort of rain. It’s the heavy, monsoonish, downpour, accompanied by thunder and lightning, sort of rain. We wait inside for a few minutes, but no, it’s not letting up, so we’ll have to make a dash for our cars. It’s pouring so hard that in those few moments we both get soaked. But this is good - maybe all this heavy rain will drown some of those nasty fires out there, and those rumbles of thunder don’t mean more fires have started. Later in the afternoon, one of the local fire department people wanders through the store. Yes, the lightning did start a few little fires, but between the rain and the fast action of the fire department, they’ve pretty much been knocked down.
Friday, July 21 – All that rain yesterday has cleared the air very nicely. You can still smell the smoke, but it is much lighter and fainter. It’s nice to be able to take a deep breath without coughing. There’s a little bit of haze, but you only notice it when you look to the farther away hills. The nearby hills are easy to see, and not a plume of smoke in sight. I haven’t heard if the evacuation alert has been lifted for Little Fort or not, but if it hasn’t been lifted yet, it soon should be. Sunday, July 23 – Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor fire… well, maybe a power outage…. My shift on July 23 started out normally enough, with just the usual Sunday afternoon rush. However, everything got a little frantic for a few minutes, about 4:30 p.m., when the power went rather abruptly out. Turns out a tree had suddenly decided to fall on the lines just a few clicks south of the store. So, close the doors, send everyone out (some out through the side door), and rope off the pumps. Someone managed to get through to B.C. Hydro, who said it might be close to 7 p.m. before it gets back on. Okay, this means no point in the Subway kids sticking around, so they cleaned up and got ready to leave. Just before 6 p.m., as they were heading out the side door - poof - lights come back on. Well, there’s no point in Subway opening back up, so the kids leave. My co-worker and I make sure all the tills and pumps have rebooted properly, then open the doors back up and finish off our shift. Yikes! What fun! :-)