Alberta - Fort McMurray Wildfires

[Hugh Mughnus]

All,

Some of you may have seen this in your local news but we are battling some crazy fires, absolutely unreal.

 

Incredibly scary stuff.

 

Basically an entire city of just under 90k people have been evacuated. About 2000 structures have been burned down and the wildfire is showing no signs of slowing down.

 

Lots of support flowing in from fellow Canadians and in fact, people worldwide. Fort McMurray is a city full of people that service the oil industry: engineers, righands, all supporting staff etc. So, while plenty of people are being supportive of these people fleeing this disaster there are lots of armchair protesters taking the opportunity to talk shit, stating this is Karma (global warming), the people of Fort Mac are getting what they deserve, etc.

 

One of my friends (who has a 1 year old) has already lost his house.

 

Here are some videos of the evacuation....

 

Around 0:45 into this video, people are about 20 feet away from death...

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps. if any of you happen to feel like donating, the red cross is the best way. More than likely, 50% or more of the city will be destroyed before this is over.

 

https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=50610&gclid=CND6wuSsw8wCFQ5qfgodqVUC9A

[Guest]

Yeah, it's completely insane. Hoping everyone comes out OK.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Thankfully no human lives lost as of yet!

 

I feel really bad for all the people told they can't go back for their pets.... Must be heartbreaking.

 

Huge thanks to all of the first responders, fire fighters, etc.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Wildfire officials have now stated that the fire is so intense and hot that it cannot be stopped through firefighting (I've not heard that before), that it can only be stopped through weather?

 

The fire is now over 12,000 hectares.

[Tricone RC]

looks pretty harrowing esp since it's quite a big town and there's basically only one road in and out. are people managing to get out ok? are people just driving out of are there emergency flights and stuff?

 

Fires can get way bigger than this (ontario had two over 100,000ha at the same time in 2011, i was near one of them, that was scary as shit!) but they normally only affect a couple of remote reserves, so as long as you can protect the immediate area of the reserves, you can let the rest of the area burn out. Fighting this one will be brutal because there is so much more to protect

 

edit: holy shit, didn't realise the fire was actually in the city already, the airport is on fire?

[Hugh Mughnus]

Yeah Tric, the whole city is evacuated. Over 2000 homes/businesses etc burnt down.

 

There is a north and south exit out of the city, the southern exit has been breached by the fire so only the north is "safe" to leave through now.

 

My friend was actually trying to escape through the south on Tuesday and was about 20 feet from a wall of flames when the fire was first breaching the highway and he had to turn around. Closest he's been to death, according to him.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Update: the Anzac shelter for evacuees, has now been evacuated. Evacuees are being shuttled via bus etc to elsewhere as Anzac is now unsafe as well.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Welp, that escalated quickly.

 

The fire is now 85,000 hectares

 

edit: the thousands of people taking refuge in work camps/oilfields are now being planned to be mass airlifted out by the military. =/ How the hell are they going to manage that?

[chenGOD]

Yeah my brother was up there, managed to drive out yesterday. He was north of Fort Mac, so apparently had to drive a long ass way around.

 

It's only karma because of shitty city planning. Seriously - building a city in the middle of a boreal forest with essentially only two ways out by road? What the fuck is up with that.

Anyways, heart goes out to the people who lost their homes.

[Entorwellian]

It's only karma because of shitty city planning. Seriously - building a city in the middle of a boreal forest with essentially only two ways out by road? What the fuck is up with that.

Anyways, heart goes out to the people who lost their homes.

It's also the climate-change denial capital of Canada

 

Really horrible for the families though :( Can't imagine what its like to see your town being engulfed in an apocalypse

[beerwolf]

I'm doing an Explore (uk adventure travel company) trip to Canada in 6 weeks time. It runs from Calgary to Vancouver Island. So yeah I'm watching this at the moment, pretty crazy stuff.

 

First time to Canada for me. Got a feeling its gonna blow my mind. Feel sorry for the local folks though.

[Joyrex]

I'm doing an Explore (uk adventure travel company) trip to Canada in 6 weeks time. It runs from Calgary to Vancouver Island. So yeah I'm watching this at the moment, pretty crazy stuff.

 

First time to Canada for me. Got a feeling its gonna blow my mind. Feel sorry for the local folks though.

Heh, I'm going to Canada on the same route (Calgary to Vancouver) in about three weeks. Canada is fucking amazing.

[doublename]

Man, this is horrific. Never seen so much destruction from a forest fire.

[Joyrex]

Man, this is horrific. Never seen so much destruction from a forest fire.

It primarily has to do with layers and layers of dry brush, and how dry it is up there.

[Joyrex]

What amazes me is how much of Canada is so sparsely populated - I didn't realize how far Fort McMurray was from Calgary (zoom out to see):

 

 

[beerwolf]

 

I'm doing an Explore (uk adventure travel company) trip to Canada in 6 weeks time. It runs from Calgary to Vancouver Island. So yeah I'm watching this at the moment, pretty crazy stuff.

 

First time to Canada for me. Got a feeling its gonna blow my mind. Feel sorry for the local folks though.

Heh, I'm going to Canada on the same route (Calgary to Vancouver) in about three weeks. Canada is fucking amazing.

 

 

It's a small world Lord Joyrex!

 

This is my first trip abroad since going 'into the wilderness' for a number of years. I kind of lost the plot for a while. I think Canada is going to blow my mind. I know a few people who've done the same trip and tell me it' a great, great trip. I'll probably get back home and be planning some massive backpacking mission!

 

Anyway back to the subject. I'm trying to get more news on the Canada situation but the UK news is filled with boring, dull, fucking politicians. Apparently and unbeknown to me there is local elections going on lol. No one told me lol.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Maybe you guys will stop by Calgary for a beer or two!

 

 

The fire:

Most recent updates are that all 88k civilians remain evacuated and they are sending in special officers looking for stragglers or those refusing to obey the evac order.

 

Officials estimate this will take weeks to fight, and maintain that only an act of god (rain) at this point will fix the fire due to the intense heat (and size, it's grown to 850 square km, appr 105,000 hectares).

 

So sad, and scary.

[beerwolf]

 

What amazes me is how much of Canada is so sparsely populated - I didn't realize how far Fort McMurray was from Calgary (zoom out to see):

 

 

 

 

Great minds think alike. I was just looking at the exact same map 20 minutes ago to get a handle on the geography and situation.

 

Shame your not on the same trip as me (I'm not such a fucking idiot in real life, I promise) 'cause I'd love to borrow your portable music player. You'd have to have that under lock and key mate

[Joyrex]

 

 

What amazes me is how much of Canada is so sparsely populated - I didn't realize how far Fort McMurray was from Calgary (zoom out to see):

 

 

 

 

Great minds think alike. I was just looking at the exact same map 20 minutes ago to get a handle on the geography and situation.

 

Shame your not on the same trip as me (I'm not such a fucking idiot in real life, I promise) 'cause I'd love to borrow your portable music player. You'd have to have that under lock and key mate

 

Strangely enough, nothing I have on my iPhone is of any interest. Now, on my MacBook...

[chenGOD]

 

What amazes me is how much of Canada is so sparsely populated - I didn't realize how far Fort McMurray was from Calgary (zoom out to see):

 

 

 

 

You guys know that between 75-85% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border right?

Also the distances shouldn't be so bad for you Joyrex - you live in Texas. Beerwolf on the other hand....

I remember being in the UK telling people I'd drive from Cornwall to Newcastle in a day and think nothing of it, they'd look at me a bit funny (well a bit funnier than Cornish usually look). But that's not much of a drive...9 hours or so? At not necessarily outlandish speeds. Used to be able to do Edmonton to Vancouver in 11-12 hours, with a lot of ridiculously stupid driving in the mountains.

 

Beerwolf, if you have time in Vancouver, let's go for a pint.

[beerwolf]

Maybe you guys will stop by Calgary for a beer or two!

 

 

 

I'll pm you in a the next day or 2. I know I have an afternoon and the following day in Calgary free. Don't want to make promises though until I know for sure about the finer details. But I'd be more than happy to sink a few beers with the Department of Canadian Watmm.

[beerwolf]

 

 

What amazes me is how much of Canada is so sparsely populated - I didn't realize how far Fort McMurray was from Calgary (zoom out to see):

 

 

 

 

You guys know that between 75-85% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border right?

Also the distances shouldn't be so bad for you Joyrex - you live in Texas. Beerwolf on the other hand....

I remember being in the UK telling people I'd drive from Cornwall to Newcastle in a day and think nothing of it, they'd look at me a bit funny (well a bit funnier than Cornish usually look). But that's not much of a drive...9 hours or so? At not necessarily outlandish speeds. Used to be able to do Edmonton to Vancouver in 11-12 hours, with a lot of ridiculously stupid driving in the mountains.

 

Beerwolf, if you have time in Vancouver, let's go for a pint.

 

 

Yeah I was once told by an Australian local at the bus station the camp site 'was just around the corner' (I was walking with a heavy back pack, it was the middle of the day and boiling hot). Jesus Christ, 3 hours later I'm still walking round the bloody corner lol. Got there in the end, half dead, heh.

 

I'm happy to talk and drink beer with anyone on here. It's what I'm good at.

 

Apologies for the massive tangent fellow watmmer's.

[ambermonk]

Donation submitted.

To everyone in the affected area, stay safe.

[KovalainenFanBoy]

source of fire confirmed:

 

 

 

 

 

[Hugh Mughnus]

source of fire confirmed:

 

 

 

 

 

lol nice

I wonder what actually started the fire? Just dry brush finally set on fire by the heat?

 

Hopefully not some douche flicking a cigarette into the woods.