Fire departments in Olds and Bowden helped police rescue motorists stranded on Highway 2 between Olds and Innisfail during blizzard conditions on the evening of Dec. 28.
Chief Larry Werner of the Bowden Fire Department said his crews brought 14 people to a shelter at the Bowden Friendship Centre during the storm using department vehicles and the town's community bus.
At 9:30 p.m., he said, the department responded to a crash involving a tractor-trailer and three other vehicles on the highway and after they had cleared the crash scene, the RCMP and Alberta Sheriffs asked them to begin assisting motorists stranded in the ìzero-visibilityî conditions between Bowden and the Red Deer County line.
Department members went from vehicle to vehicle between 10 and 11 p.m. to find people needing help and Werner added many people went to the Bowden shelter on their own.
No one was seriously injured, police reported.
The Olds Fire Department transported roughly a dozen people from the highway to local hotels or the homes of friends in Olds over a four-hour period during the storm.
Department chief Lorne Thompson said some of the people dropped off at hotels waited for a ride or tow truck to continue their journeys.
Many other motorists, he added, decided to pull off to a safe location to wait out the weather.
Earlier in the evening, police had advised motorists to stay off the highway in the area due to poor visibility and accumulating snow.
