A Cariboo man experienced first hand the wildfire evacuation of the community of Drayton Valley Alberta.
Cody Call, who was there yesterday (Thursday) with C-Plus Rodeo for the Drayton Valley Rodeo, said announcer Tyson Peach had an excellent plan for this situation.
“It was a little bit hectic to begin with. The guys that put on that Pro Rodeo, John Duffy and Tyson Peach, who last year was at the Williams Lake Stampede with the unforeseen circumstances, he was excellent in that situation.” Call said, “He had an excellent plan for this situation. We knew the fire was there, we had a well established plan hours and hours before they were getting close. So when the City made the call, it actually wasn’t too big of a panic on our end because we were kind of already in the loop.”
Call said the City was great as they informed us of everything that was happening, gave us plenty of notice and we were out of there with all the stock in about 20 to 30 minutes.
“We already run our slack performance yesterday (Thursday) morning at 10. There was already about 50 barrel racers and some other time event cattle that had been run that morning.” Call said, “Three contractors were there including ourselves, we help them all load, we all did our load. We helped them pick up tubs, get everything organized, and helped the pickup guys load their horses.
Call noted that it brought back memories of 2017 when the City of Williams Lake was evacuated.
“It does help when you’ve been through it once, evacuations and moving livestock in hostile environments. That extra bit of experience definitely didn’t hurt.”
On their Facebook Page this morning the Williams Lake Stampede Association said they are sending thoughts and prayer to the community of Drayton Valley.
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