Photo: CTV

The wildfire that is devastating large swaths of the northern Alberta city of Fort McMurray comes just five years after another blaze destroyed 400 buildings and left 2,000 people homeless in Slave Lake, Alta.

The Slave Lake fire started May 15, 2011, forcing 7,000 people out of the community after flames whipped by 100-kilometre-an-hour winds laid waste to hundreds of homes and businesses.

Some estimates pegged the damage at up to $1 billion, which insurance adjusters estimated at the time made it the second-costliest disaster next to the Quebec-Ontario ice storm of 1998.

The Slave Lake fire was driven by five consecutive days of winds averaging between 50 and 60 kilometres an hour — an event that had been unprecedented in 35 years of weather records in the area.

No one was hurt, but a fire-fighting helicopter pilot died after crashing on Lesser Slave Lake. About 1,400 firefighters along with 170 helicopters and tankers were deployed to Slave Lake, which is about 430 kilometres away from Fort McMurray and 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

It was later determined that the an arsonist recklessly or deliberately ignited the forest fire that reduced a third of Slave Lake to rubble.

Images of entire neighbourhoods razed to ash and homes reduced to charred cement foundations, were beamed around the world. Soon after, Prince William and his wife Kate made an impromptu visit during their cross-Canada tour to show support.

A subsequent report into the disaster found Alberta's forest fire danger had grown to the point where it was beginning to outstrip the province's ability to respond. It said the wind-whipped fires moved faster than officials were able to communicate with each other or the people of Slave Lake. As a result, residents weren't told about how quickly the danger to themselves and their community was escalating.

The report also pointed to communication troubles between the provincial government and other organizations, finding overloaded radio systems, power outages and loss of cellphone coverage made things worse.

Some residents complained that they weren't given enough warning and were forced to turn back into the inferno when they tried to leave town because they found that roads had been closed.

The province delivered almost $300 million in aid, including millions for modular homes for residents who lost everything.