Originally published May 17, 2011

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SLAVE LAKE — On street after street there is little left here but grey ash and rubble, the burned hulks of cars and trucks with tires melted away.

Concrete steps that once welcomed people home now lead nowhere at all.

A day after a wildfire forced 7,000 frightened people from the homes, the air in this ravaged northern Alberta town smells of burned metal and smoke.

It’s not clear just how many houses and other buildings were destroyed, but officials say the number is in the hundreds.

The scenes of devastation are everywhere: the shell of a motor boat, melted patio chairs, barbecues burned to a crisp, a swing set on charred black grass.

The fire tore through the southeast part of the town with little rhyme or reason. Between two relatively untouched homes sat a gaping hole where another once stood.

On one side of a street, a row of houses that escaped the flames. Across the street, utter destruction

The library and the town hall are gone. The schools, hospital, RCMP detachment and banks were spared.

“I don’t know when in history we’ve evacuated at least 7,000 people in such a short period of time,” said Premier Ed Stelmach, who toured the town Monday and afterwards spoke to reporters in the middle of a ruined subdivision.

“We’ve had large grass fires, we’ve had forest fires, but not so many homes lost.”

Hot spots remained a challenge for firefighters Monday, as homes ignited and reignited through the afternoon.

About half the homes in the southeast part of town were destroyed, said Slave Lake Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee. Some in the northwest part of the town were also lost.

The speed of the fire took many by surprise and left some wondering whether more could have been done to evacuate residents sooner.

Pillay-Kinnee said emergency workers and town officials did what they could.

“This is a first time experience for us,” she said. “We had multiple fires on either end of the community. What I’m thankful for at this point is we have no loss of life.”

Stelmach, who joined the mayor to tour the destruction, said emergency workers did their best under the circumstances.

With 100 km/h winds and four-foot waves in the lake, water bombers were called off out of fear for the pilots’ safety, he said.

In the end, the fire proved to be too powerful.

“These were calls made by professionals,” Stelmach said. “The bigger the fire, the greater the weather system the fire creates itself, and we’ve seen the results.”

It’s not yet clear when residents will be able to return to their homes, but it likely won’t be for many days, possibly weeks. All of the town’s essential services were wiped out, said Pillay-Kinnee.

“There’s a lot of services, potable water, electricity, natural gas, relocating our hospital — very critical services that we need in place before we can have our residents return.”