Ten years later: Former Slave Lake mayor remembers wildfire that burned through town
Karina Pillay remembers everything about the wildfire. She remembers the chaos the day it hit. The fireballs falling around the town’s government building. The traffic gridlock as flames blocked the roads.
“It was such a life-changing experience,” the former Slave Lake mayor said in an interview from Calgary, where she now works as a family doctor.
“You just can’t forget those vivid images in your head.”
Pillay was in her third term as mayor when the wildfire burned about one-third of the northern Alberta town 10 years ago this month.