Slave Lake - One-third of Slave Lake has been lost to fire.

Photograph by: Shane O'Brien, Reader Photo, edmontonjournal.com-

By Miriam Ibrahim and Ryan Cormier, Postmedia News

ATHABASCA, Alta. — As hundreds of firefighters converged with their equipment from across Western Canada on Slave Lake, the northern Alberta town's mayor toured her community Monday afternoon and saw what could have been some blasted corner of a battlefield: homes and businesses reduced to hot ash, twisted steel and rubble.

Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee sounded heartbroken as she told journalists fully a third of the town of 7,000 souls had been reduced to ashes after a violent wildfire aided by 100 kilometre-per-hour winds ripped past the fire barriers and breached the town's boundaries on Sunday evening.

So far there have been no deaths attributed to the inferno, which began as a forest fire 15 kilometres outside town on the weekend. But as of Monday night one thing was painfully obvious: Slave Lake will be rebuilding for a long time...Read Here Wildfires devastate Canadian town and threaten oil supplies (VIDEO)http://ht.ly/4WIO3