Fort McMurray Fire

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ChemGal

ChemGal

One with keen eye
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Watching on the news right now yikes!
I had heard about the possibility of evacuation for the last few days but considering the size of it I thought it was just surrounding area or because of the smoke.
This is looking like it could be a similar situation to Slave Lake. Not having been there myself I had assumed there was more in fmm to prevent a widespread fire as it's a pretty major centre.
 
I'm seeing from some sources that the entire city has an evacuation order. People can't even go south they have to go north.
 
My son's friend was evacuated from his house this morning .It is very scary. There is some kind

of camp set up at the mine . most of the roads are closed to leave. It is suppose to be hotter tomorrow

Sask. is under a fire watch. Poor people who have breathing problems.
 
it seems so early for the wildfire season to begin ... was it particularly dry winter up there ChemGal? I agree, the photos look quite frightening - hard to imagine it. My nephew works on rigs - he's out in the field now, but not near Fort Mac AFAIK. Prayers of safety for all.

Is your breathing okay crazyheart? I recall a few years ago the smoke was a considerable problem for you.
 
It was a very dry winter. I can only think of one day of rain we've had this spring, and that didn't last long and it wasn't a downpour.

Last I heard before the news went back to normal programming was that people who were headed north were driving back into the evacuation zone. A fire is blocking off the Northern portion of the city now. While I haven't been there, I know people who do, there really aren't many roads in/out. It sounds like they were now having people go south and then either east/west for a bit, not really sure. Hopefully everyone can get out safely.

The hospital had a plane fly all the patients to Edmonton.

It's hot here thermometer says 33. Temps are higher there than here. The snow melted much earlier than usual - we didn't have the typical melt/get a fair bit more snow in March. The province has had quite a few fires already, although other than the ones leading up to this I was hearing more of grass/bush in smaller areas rather than forest fires.
 
Tomorrow is supposed to be a worse day for the fires too - due to winds.
 
I'm not really sure where people are going to go. The oil field camps are opening up for people, but they don't have space for the numbers going north, many are already full and I believe one is being evacuated. If not yet, it's on watch to be.
 
Right now it's all about just get out, but I keep thinking about what this is going to mean long term. When I think to Slave Lake and how long it took for things to get back to a reasonable state of normal - Chemguy had that as part of his work area and there were times where he should have been staying overnight but all the hotels were booked in Slave Lake and Whitecourt pretty often.

Fort McMurray is much bigger than Slave Lake, and it has put a fair bit of effort in building itself into a more family-friendly place and promoting itself as such. If a significant number of residences are uninhabitable for a while I really don't know what that will mean for them, as well as for industry up there.
 
This sounds terrible. How will those without vehicles get out? Invalids, the elderly, wheelchairs, etc... Are elevators still working? I hope and pray everyone thinks about their neighbours when they leave.
 
Waterfall said:
This sounds terrible. How will those without vehicles get out? Invalids, the elderly, wheelchairs, etc... Are elevators still working? I hope and pray everyone thinks about their neighbours when they leave.
Click to expand...
As there was discussion about this for a few days I'm hoping that those who aren't as mobile made plans and were about to get out on highway 63 going South.
 
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Not something I would want to drive through!
 
I've been to Fort Mac. It's a city of 100,000. That's a lot of people (and pets) to evacuate. RCMP are going door to door.

Highway 63-the one road south-is now re-opened.

There is a facebook page of Albertans offering accomadations, places to park RVs, homes for pets etc.

I have heard of property loss but not lives lost.

As for things in place-apparently they were using fire retardant and water bombers but the winds changed. The fire jumped the Athabasca River to the city- and that is a decent sized river.
 
Hmmm I just checked population number as a variety of numbers on news stories. Latest municipal census showed over 100,000 but numbers are down with downturn in oil. Older city proper was lower.
 
My old guy's niece lives and works there. Phone call late yesterday to let him know she'd evacuated safely.
 
Red Cross appeals are quite welcome here (as are UCCan appeals, though those should probably be in the UCCan forum).

All too often, when humans and nature conflict, nature is going to win in spite of our best efforts. All we can do is offer assistance to those affected and see what we can do to minimize the risk of future events.
 
Just womdering if everyone was told to turn their gas off? Or does that even help? And gas stations...what happens when they are consumed with fire and all of the chemicals within a city? What a trying time for the firefighters.
 
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