Efforts to assist those fighting the Jasper wildfires continued on Friday, and Prince Albert’s Ed Dean is among those offering his services.
Dean is a Disaster Services Specialist for the Salvation Army in Saskatchewan, and based out of Prince Albert.
He left Prince Albert on Tuesday and arrived in Hinton, Alta. on Wednesday. Since then he has been on scene serving meals to RCMP officers who are on scene helping with the evacuation.
He is one of four members of a Salvation Army Disaster Services team tasked with providing food.They arrived to heavy ash and rain falling from the sky on Wednesday.
“Wednesday night it was so dark with ash at 6:30 at night, you’d think you were in the middle of the night,” Dean said. “When we got into our truck to go back to the hotel, I said to the person sitting beside me, ‘so, do I use the snowbrush on this to get this off?’ It was so thick, and it was just ash and rain…. White shirts were not white. They were black. Our trucks, you wouldn’t know our trucks were white trucks, they were so dark.”
Dean made his way to Edmonton Tuesday night, and was originally slated to head into Jasper to begin serving meals. On their way, however, the crew was told they could only go as far as Hinton, a town located roughly 67 km northeast of the Jasper townsite.
“Wednesday we took off early in the morning and we arrived here in Hinton at noon and we went right to work preparing a meal for 50 RCMP members,” Dean said. “Then we provided lunch service for a much-reduced number because they by that point in time they were evacuating out of Jasper.
“Yesterday (Thursday) was a down day,” he added. “It was quieter. Everybody was here in Hinton. Nobody was allowed into Jasper, and then today (Friday) things have brightened up your bit.”
He explained that he initially deployed to Edmonton because that is where large pieces of equipment are located.
“We’re all one organization, so we bring in and add and subtract as we need,” Dean said.
Dean received notice on Monday that the Salvation Army was on standby for emergency services. This isn’t the first time he’s been involved in providing emergency meals. He said the goal is to help emergency crews do their jobs without having to worry about things like food.
“If we don’t, the members and the fire crews, they’re not able to do their task,” he explained. “We hydrate and feed and they do the hard work.”
On Friday, his crew did 225 meals for lunch. At the time of the interview, Dean expected 40 for supper.
“There is ebbs and flows to it,” Dean explained. “We use the local (businesses) where we can. We bring stuff with us where we can, but we also support the local people as well and purchase what we what we need to make it happen.”
Dean said he has not heard if his crew will go into Jasper or stay in Hinton, but they’re prepared for anything.
“Well, we’re here as long as we’re needed,” he said. “We have another crew that’s in High Level Alberta at the moment and they’re feeding as well.”
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