Fort McMurray wildfire
RV Business
The RV Dealers Association (RVDA) of Alberta is working with members to try to help their customers who are among the 88,000 people displaced by the Fort McMurray wildfires in the northeastern part of the province.
“We don’t have any dealerships up in Fort McMurray, but we have a lot of customers who go up and set up there,” said Dan Merkowsky, executive vice president of RVDA of Alberta. “All those people will be looking for somewhere to get out of Dodge.”
RV dealers across Alberta are getting calls from customers who left the oil-producing area, located 270 miles north of Edmonton, in such a hurry they don’t have keys to their units, or wanting to cancel parts orders since their RVs burned, Merkowsky said.
The RVDA of Alberta’s board donated $5,000 today (May 5) to the Red Cross and urged dealers to do the same, especially since the government is matching private donations.
RV dealers are opening up storage lots for fleeing RVers. “There are no hookups, but at least it’s a place for them to be,” Merkowsky said.
“We have individuals who have taken RVs with water and set up along the road going up toward Fort McMurray, trying to dispense it to people,” he continued. “Everybody’s pitching in right now at a local level, making accommodations. We want to support Albertans and keep Albertans in Alberta.
“It’s a tough time. To have 88,000 people displaced all over the map is crazy at this point in time,” he said.
Fire crews have a few hard days of work ahead of them, Merkowsky reported, but they hope to open up the road enough in the next couple of days to allow some 25,000 people who fled north to oilfield work camps to pass back through the evacuated town in order to head south, where there are more facilities and easier access to aid.
The fires have been burning since May 1 and have now reached 210,000 acres, Global News reported. The blazes have destroyed 1,600 homes and other buildings and the Alberta government has declared a state of emergency. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.
Originally published here.