Fort McMurray, Canada on fire

[aero]

Remember to do control burns kids, otherwise you get this:


Discuss.

[mechamind]

This one is already 5 times the size of the one near Kelowna in 2003. I don't know what air quality in Fort McMurray was like before the fire, but it was hot and windy.

Evacuation must be crazy when there's only one road out of the area and when outside of Fort McMurray itself, virtually nobody else lives within 100 km of the area.

[Quantix]

I... don't even want to know what led to this.

[mechamind]

I did a double take on Google Maps, and he's lucky to be alive. Apparently he came from Beacon Hill, which only has one connection to another road (Highway 63, which itself is the only connection to the rest of Alberta). If that road was cut off, those residents would have been trapped.

EDIT: I found another first-hand video of someone driving away from the other side of the Athabasca (from 4:33 PM to 6:48 PM, video speeds up in several areas).

[Metamorphizer]

I actually have some passive experience with wildfires. I grew up near Colorado Springs during the 2002 Hayman fire and also experienced an 18,000 acre grass fire only a mile from my house. Then, in 2011, I was on rafting trip down the Deschutes River in Oregon and saw helicopters using river water to fight fires on the surrounding hills. I also worked two summers at a summer camp in the Cascades and we were surrounded by smoke for about a week one year. The camp director considered moving everyone if the fires came too close.

Those Alberta fires, though. The inferno in the video is what I imagine hell to be like. There's even firey hail, so to speak. Last I checked, about 90,000 people have been evacuated around Fort McMurray and the fire could double in size, reaching the Saskatchewan border.

[mechamind]

And the other problem is that British Columbia can't send their own teams over to fight the fire because everyone is fighting wildfires over here. This province is getting about twice as many fires as it has gotten previously.

The Fort McMurray fire has met the criteria for Google Crisis Map. It says significant damage to Wood Buffalo, Beacon Hill, Centennial Trailer Park, Waterways, and the local Super 8 Hotel.

[Timaeus Bouma]

the fire i guess killed mooses. All Canucks eat moose like water so I think that there is now the cheap moose meat from dead mooses in Canada, yes?

[mechamind]

I knew someone was going to bring up the wildlife eventually, but I didn't think it would have to do with moose meat. I've never seen it, though I know you can eat flavored water during the summer months. Even if someone did want to go after the moose meat, it would have long gone bad in this heat a while ago.

It says that the fire has reached about halfway between Fort McMurray and Fort Mackay. Though I don't know how long the fire has been around that area, it does indicate that the oil sands operations are likely to be hit. The air quality isn't helping matters.

About 3,500-3,600 square kilometers of land burned already, approximately a 34 km radius. They're saying it could take months to put out the fire, but with the weather conditions, it could still take until the end of the year.

EDIT: The flames have already reached the southeast end of the oil sands operations, and a work camp just west of that has been engulfed. The premiere of Alberta said the flames are likely to move east, and not north. But that's still about 1/3 of the operations that would be hit due to eastern movement.

[mechamind]

Starting on June 1, the provincial government has a re-entry plan (depending on the condition of particular communities) for Fort McMurray residents. Seems a bit dangerous to allow residents to re-enter when the claim is that the fire will take months to put out. And what if the flames "jump" across roads or areas less likely to burn? Though the plan also says it depends on safety conditions, which I take to mean they'll be required to leave again if it gets too close.

[aero]

Canada is a failed state.


Cut from the clip above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NOv-4ky7I

[mechamind]

It's really not one state based on serious political divides. From my perspective, you've got British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec all on their own. You've got the three prairie provinces as one. You've got the four Atlantic provinces as one. And you've got the three territories as one. Relationships within these six "states" may also be difficult.

I don't know if these relationships are also causing a delay in rescue relief, though there's always a slim chance.

[aero]

Trudeau's denial of international help certainly isn't helping a speedy relief. He hasn't done much but stutter in front of a camera and actively prevent help. Honestly they should be able to decide themselves what help they need, as they certainly know their own condition better than a substitute drama teacher Prime Minister.

[mechamind]

At almost 1.3 million acres, the burned area is now more than 20 times the size of what was burned in the 2003 Kelowna fire (64,000 acres). And to think the Kelowna fire started on August 16th, while the Fort McMurray fire started on May 1st (we're not even into summer yet).

[HeroOfRhyme]

Good thing I live on the east coast of Canada and not the west praries, news about this spread so quickly and its such a shame that it happened but what can you do, from what I heard I could get paid $20/hour to work helping fort mcmurray..or so ive been told.

I just hope if its not out yet that it doesnt spread into a worldwide epidemic fire or something, i dont really keep in touch with the news so yeah..

[SomeRandomGuy]

This sounds like it really sucks. Good thing I don't live in canada

[mechamind]

If you live in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, or Nevada, you probably won't notice (I'm in metro Vancouver and I don't notice). East of the fire, smoke is expected, and it's currently being blocked by the rocky mountains except where it doesn't have to climb as much.

That's not to say other wildfires will affect the west side. It probably just won't smell like the oil sands operations.