Forest fire

[sawguy21]

My bil and nephew work out of a 130 km camp north of Ft McMurray Alberta, it is ugly up there right now. They just went back to work the other day but are now on a moments notice to leave as the camp is needed for evacuees from town. However nothing is flying in or out because of the smoke and the only road leads to the fire.
Gas pumps are dry in town, evacuees heading south on the highways are stranded. RCMP and tank trucks are patrolling the roads to make sure everyone on the clogged two lanes gets out safely.
Fire officials say it will only get worse, temperatures are in the high 20's, low to mid 90's Fahrenheit, with strong winds. The CBC news images are frightening.

[thecfarm]

That does not sound good.  :(

[DeerMeadowFarm]

I just saw some pictures of this...not good.  :-\

[WmFritz]

I just saw some pictures of this...not good.  :-\

I did too. I read an interview by one woman that said it looked like a zombie apocalypse trying to leave town. The article said 80,000 people need to be evacuated. Was that a misprint?

[Woodhauler]

No misprint, whole town 80,000 people  told to leave.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Good idea to evacuate.
Remember the Peshtigo fire in WIS and the tillamook in OR?

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Just saw this on the news. Its impossible to fight a fire of that magnitude with equipment and having those high winds. Nature plays a big part in the intensity and nature will have to play a big part in containing it.
Good luck up there.

[red]

Catastrophic .

[Chuck White]

The pics on the evening news tonight were bad, real bad.

My heart goes out the ones on the evac route!

[Ianab]

News here reports 1600 structures destroyed by fire. I'm guessing that's not ALL houses, but I'm sure a heck of a lot are.

Getting everyone out before it was too late seems to have been a REALLY good idea. Lot of people could have died of they left it too late.

[thecfarm]

I saw the report on the news too. Trees burning besides the roads is not a good sight. Saw some homes that was gone too.

[r.man]

I was a fire fighter for just one summer in the eighties, we didn't see a lot of action because we were basically extras but we saw some up close. I cannot stress how dangerous forest fires are, I have no desire to be within a few hundred miles of one and would not wait until I got an evacuation order to put lots of distance between myself and any fire. We once bolted and left our equipment to burn because of a wind change and that was in fairly mild conditions. Think of the worst campfire smoke you have ever stepped into and now make everywhere like that while trying to decide which way is safe to go. Not a good situation and I really feel for the people affected.

[sawguy21]

Last we heard, bil and nephew are stuck at the camp airstrip. The buses left to evacuate camps closer to the fire, no flights in or out and it's a long walk back to the bunkhouses. We don't know how sleeping accommodations, sanitary facilities and meals are being handled.

[starmac]

As I understand it, even the new school which is close to the center of town has burned. What I read last night was the town was mandatorily vacuated, but at the same time the road that was needed to take was closed, so everybody had to go thre wrong way which did not lead to any help until they ran out of gas. They were bring in tankers trying to get everybody up and running again.

I drove through Alberta, the week before last and they were already fighting fires then, hope that they catch a break from mother nature.

[Bandmill Bandit]

I live about 4 hours south of the fire and my daughters very good friend was sent in yesterday with the Army and reserves.

Approximately 1600 to 1800 structures destroyed as of last night.

My daughter works for StanTech and the new school they are building for September opening date was completely destroyed along with 2 new neighbor hoods that were close to 80 percent complete are gone as well.

The boots on the ground are working hard to protect and save infrastructure and directing the excuation of some 50,000 plus people. Water treatment plant and pumping station along with the sewage treatment plant, municipal yards and shops were at risk last night as well as one of the fire stations.

Air port was also at risk and Transport Canada had called in the air force to shift the air port to another industrial heavy transport air field.

Conner said Afghanistan and Iraq was not a lot different  then this for the emotional state of the people and the fact you 10s of 1000s of people trying to get out of town on the only high way in there and its mostly a 2 lane high way under construction getting twined. He said the good part is that the people aren't trying to shoot you.

Temperature to day is 14 degrees C so far and its cloud and we are getting a little rain.

We need it to dump for a few days but this will help the fire fighters alot and will suppress smoke so that the water bombers can get in closer.

This one makes the last one look like a camp fire.   
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/fort-mcmurray-fire-alberta-expands-evacuations-1.2888796   

[sawguy21]

Many did not get enough warning to have time to gas up and the stations had to close up as people fled. The city was cut in half by the fire as the only bridge was threatened, those on the north side of the river were forced to go north to the camps. The fire came in from the southwest so the main highway south runs right by it, dash cams showed flames beside the road and sparks flying around the slow moving vehicles. I can't imagine being an LEO out there directing traffic.

[Paul_H]

My Brother was evacuated to North hills camp and is just flying out today. He has a house in one of the bad areas but doesn't know yet if it's still there. 

[DanG]

Dash-cam video of evacuation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC2iPvXAggM

[Chuck White]

I couldn't imagine going through that gut-wrenching ordeal!

[lowpolyjoe]

I saw the coverage on the news this evening.  Terrifying.   

[sawguy21]

Bil and nephew have been moved to a camp further north to make room for evacuees. According to my sister (who is a nervous wreck) there will be five flights an hour round the clock to move 18000 people to Edmonton or Calgary starting tomorrow, they need the camps for fire fighters. The guys have been split up, they don't know which flight(s) they will be on and will be going at a moments notice. My nephew's wife is driving to Red Deer, halfway between the two cities to retrieve them and drive home. The logistics are mind boggling.

[Brucer]

May 1: Large fire burning in the forest, well south of town and west of the highway, wind blowing from the east, no structures downwind. Something to keep an eye on, but not alarming.

May 2: Fire doubles in size, but still moving to the west. A few people receive an"evacuation alert", which means they could be ordered to leave and could get as little as 15 minutes warning.

May 3: Fire doubles in size again, still moving moving to the west, but starting to curl northward. Huge clouds of smoke in the distance, sunny over the city, a few neighbourhoods on the outskirts put on evacuation alert.

Suddenly, just around noon, the fire explodes. No one was prepared for this. Fire is now burning east toward the highway. Wind is carrying firebrands up to 2 km (more than a mile) ahead of the fire. Fire jumps the Athabaska river. Entire city is ordered to evacuate.

May 4. Fire quadruples in size over previous day. Fire now burning on both sides of the river, moving east and north directly toward town. South of the city the fire burns eastward across the highway and approaches the airport. Fire operations centre has to be evacuated to a community to the south.

May 5 (today): Fire grows by a factor of 8 over the previous day. Winds up to 70 km/hr (45 MPH). Structural firefighters are working inside the city trying to save buildings. Wildfire crews can do nothing to stop the spread of the fire (as one operations chief said, dropping water from the air on a fire this size is like spitting in a campfire.) Three communities south of the city are evacuated. Fire operations centre has to be evacuated again.

[square1]

Prayers for the safety of those fleeing and those fighting this inferno. Most things can be replaced, but their lives cannot.

[thecfarm]

It just keeps getting worse.   :( :(

[OntarioAl]

The Fort Fire is a real tragedy with a silver lining about 90,000 people evacuated and no lives lost to the fire (unfortunately one young lady was killed  in a traffic accident).
Large Forest Fires are nothing new to this region check out The Great Fire of 1919 2.8 million ha (almost 6.9 million acres)
https://merlemassie.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/the-great-fire-of-1919/
Ontario is starting to pick up some serious fire activity in the Kenora Red Lake areas on the border with the province of Manitoba.
Could be a serious fire season
Al