Red Lake Fire 14 remembered.

In May 2010, "Fire People: Fire 14: Red Lake 1980" was published to commemorate the devastating forest fire that led to the evacuation of Red Lake and district in 1980. This evacuation was, at the time, the largest civilian evacuation ever made in Canada. My family, including my parents, visiting from England, were among those evacuated.



The book is a compilation of the stories of thirty people affected by the fire. Fire fighters, nurses, stay-behinds, housewives and many others tell their stories. The book is a labour of love by the staff of the Red Lake Regional Heritage Centre. It is illustrated with photos from that time as wellas newspaper stories about the disaster and the personal stories from that time.



One of the story tellers was my Mother. her story was written to my sister and her husband in England telling of their adventures. If you click on the photograph here you will get some of the flavour of her story.

The evacuation and the fire fighting were successful in the main. No lives were lost, the towns survived, though some cottages and camps were lost.