It all started with a phone call from our daughter, Vanessa while we were walking the dog in Wapiti Campground.
"Mum, where are you?  Well you had better get home because there's a wildfire and they're telling everybody to get ready for an evacuation."
So we got Monte into the car and drove home.  Once we were in the house we started to gather the things that we thought would be needed for a short two or three days away.  Dog food, wash kit, camp cooking equipment, a tent, sleeping bags, pyjamas and a change of clothes.  Enough for a short stay in emergency accommodation or the ability to camp if necessary.  As we were gathering things together and all of the time that we were in our living area, the smoke alarm was blaring our it's deafening scream and I was not able to turn it off.  We had had problems with this particular alarm before so we weren't surprised that it was activated even though there was no sign of smoke.   Before we had finished packing we  received a new emergency alert telling us we had five hours to leave town and the only route we could take was west on Highway 16.