Drove through there yesterday. I think we were the last vehicle through at the Athabasca Falls fire. It had just started, but very close to the road from a lightning strike. Winds were insane, knocking trees down and blowing the flames VERY fast (est 60-80mph). I'll save that pic for later in this post.
We were just on a normal trip to visit my daughter in Dunster, BC when the fires got worse and we had to hustle to evacuate them. Luckily, they were planning a short trip anyway, and were half packed (for a trip, not to move ASAP!). This is the fire the night before we left:
And this is the fire as my wife is driving through the flames. Another 5-10 seconds and we would not have made it:
There were sparks flying, cars stopped (and people out of their cars taking pictures!) and flames were starting to sweep across the road. Note that she was only going 65kph because it was hard to see if anyone was on the road.... I was loudly encouraging her to floor it.... ) The trees you can see still standing at the roadside went up in flames seconds after we went through.
I bet this fire started less than 20 minutes before we got there, and likely jumped the road soon after we left. Had we not made it through, the detour would have been very long. My daughter left an hour after us and is still not here (our home - the fall back rendevouz point) almost a day later. My sympathies for the folks stuck in traffic, holidays ruined or even homes lost.
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