BANFF – Treasured family heirlooms from the legendary Brewster family of Banff National Park were destroyed in the prescribed fire that got out of control near the Banff townsite on Wednesday, burning down three sheds at the horse corrals.
Alison Brewster – who is part of a legacy family who are as much a part of the Banff landscape as the rugged mountains surrounding them – said a saddle was destroyed in the blaze, which belonged to her mom, Annette Brewster. Annette was married to fourth-generation Brewster, Bud, who passed away in 2012.
She said wedding present tack are destroyed, saddles her two daughters, Morgan and Joleen Niehaus, used as children are gone, and yet another saddle belonging to her sister and well-known singer-songwriter, Cori Brewster, made by famed saddle maker and artisan Steve Cody was also destroyed when the shed burned down.
“They’re family heirlooms and they’re irreplaceable. You can’t just go into a store and buy new ones,” said an emotional Alison, who was choking back tears.
“There’s all this loss; it's my kids' saddles when they were babies, like when they were four years old, and my mom’s saddle and, that’s the really sad part … these are all really personal things and they meant something, and I can never replace them,” she added.
“It’s still really raw … it’s just really sad.”
On Wednesday afternoon (May 3), flames from prescribed fire operations at Compound Meadows jumped from the west side of Banff Avenue to the east side as winds unexpectedly whipped up at around 4 p.m., quickly spreading to the horse corrals and near the Mountain View Cemetery.
With the assistance of four helicopters bucketing water on the blaze, multiple fire crews from Parks Canada and the Town of Banff, including certified fire personnel involved in the Women-in-Fire Training Exchange (WTREX) who are in an intensive 12-day training exchange May 1-12, worked to douse the flames.
The out-of-control wildfire was considered held by 11 p.m. on Wednesday night and crews and helicopters are on scene all day Thursday (May 4) putting out any remaining hot spots and making sure the fire was contained.
At least three tack sheds at the horse corrals were destroyed, including Alison’s and another owned by Banff’s prominent Monod family.
In addition, memorabilia in a shed belonging to Jolene Brewster, the quintessential Alberta cowgirl who was named Calgary Stampede Rodeo Queen in 2000, was also destroyed in the blaze.
Wednesday’s fire also forced 225 guests of the Mountain View Barbecue – a private event and reception venue run by Alison Brewster and her husband Bryan Niehaus – to another location last minute. The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel’s generously stepped in to host the petroleum industry conference.
Alison said she and her team were focused on running the event at the Mountain View Barbecue, and no one from Parks Canada had come to let them know about the approaching out-of-control fire, until about 5:45 p.m. when an RCMP officer showed up to order an evacuation.
“We could see the stuff that's happening all around us – helicopters and it was getting kind of crazy, but nobody from Parks Canada came to tell us,” she said.
“The group was coming at 5:45 p.m. and it's like literally at 5:30 p.m., we still didn't really know anything. And then sort of right around that time, Parks Canada said, ‘no, the group can’t come’. “Then we really quickly switched gears and we took the entire meal up to the Banff Springs with all of our staff. They were amazing.”
It wasn’t until the event at the Banff Springs ended that Alison was heading back to Mountain View Barbecue that she learned that her family’s was one of the sheds destroyed in the fire.
“Somebody said your shed burned down. It was very emotional,” she said.
“But nobody from Parks has reached out to us to sort of say, you know what, we're really sorry that this happened.”