Canadian Wildfires

[VLopresti]

Our thoughts and prayers are with our neighbors to the north who may have been impacted by or have been displaced by the wildfires of Western Canada.

The images in the news of the devastation of Fort McMurray are unbelievable...

 

[BIGNASTY]

Anyone know if Shad is alright? or was he anyplace near the blaze?

Best Wish's Shad

Penny & BIG

 

[jhenderson]

The fires are big and bad enough that according to the local weather report some of the smoke has traveled all the way to southern New England. Explains the haze here..

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Agreed. As this drought in the west continues, expect to see more an more of these super fires burn away. The uppers are starting realize that we've gotten too good at putting out natural wildfires, which creates a very thick and over grown under brush. When these light off, it almost takes an act of God to put them out. Yellowstone learned the hard way, and they have sense implemented new fire fighting tactics. I hope the mindset will change across the board, allowing sensible logging, natural wildfire management, and the implementation of common sense will start to negate these major wild land fires in the future.

Because of my business, I don't get many opportunities to go out of county to help with the annual wild land fires in Ca. I simply can not be away from home for 14 days at a time, have a 48 hour break, and go back for an additional 14 days. I'll tell you this though, I'll go interior on a two story burning house any day, versus being on the line of a major wild land fire. We've all experienced fire heat to some degree, but when the forrest is roaring, and you're feet from it, there is nothing on this planet that can compare. It's the most exciting, thrilling and fearful carnival ride you've ever been on.

 

[Wayne M.]

Indeed, this is a huge natural disaster. Been praying and thinking about folks in general in the area. Fire is indeed one of my true fears. Thanks Vlopresti, for bringing the thought to the forum.

 

[BIGNASTY]

you're feet from it, there is nothing on this planet that can compare. It's the most exciting, thrilling and fearful carnival ride you've ever been on.





:-laf White Phosphorus Napalm

50 YARDS WAS TO CLOSE, and it wasn't some Exciting, Thrilling & fearful carnival ride. :-laf

BUT IT WAS ONE HELL OF A RIDE

 

[Slow Six]

I live a few hundred miles from this area but we are getting smoke from the fires. I was watching the late afternoon news and several hundred more workers at the sites are being evacuated as the fires are still uncontrolled. I have family that have been evacuated earlier and still do not know the status of their homes. It has been announced that there will be no schools opened until at least September.

 

[jhenderson]

I'm a little perplexed as to why more resources weren't allocated to the area early on. I know it's not the whole answer but air tankers are usually in the northwest U S and into Canada ready to be deployed during fire season. Personell could have been drawn from all over the U S. We do it for ourselves, I'm sure we would have done it for the Canadians. I also know there are turf wars between the U S. Govt and the individual states when it comes to airborn firefighting as well as manpower and control of operations. I suppose we could be witnessing the results of a jurisdictional feud, but I hope not.

 

[Shadrach]

I live about 4 and a half hours South of Ft McMurray so other than some smoke in the air we are all fine here. Our company has a branch up there but there was no damage to it. Two of our employees lost their homes and we have helped them out in many ways, lunch fund raisers donations of money and clothes etc. I delivered 2 skids of bottled water ( about 4000 lbs ) to one of the emergency relief enters on behalf of our branch. It went very quick. I talked with one of our guys from that branch and he told me he was at work when the order to leave came. Because the area where he lives was "under fire" he wasn't even allowed to go home. He was able to contact one of his room mates who was still at home and get him to grab a few thing for him on his was out of town. He said it was pretty scary driving out of town. The smoke was so bad and thick at times he wasn't sure if his car was going to choke and die. He heard propane bottles exploding from the nearby RV park and the flames were within feet of the highway at times. They went to a nearby town but soon had to leave there as well. He said he later saw video of his area on TV and recognized his neighbour hood. Turns out his house and a few others on his street were saved but the ones down the block were all gone.

The firefighters from there and from all over did a tremendous job of saving the city. The downtown, the Hospital and the airport were all saved. Can you imagine a city of almost 90,000 people having to evacuate and there is only one main highway in and out of town heading South. Some went North because they were on the North side of the river but it is basically a dead end after the Oil Sands and then Fort McKay, about 50 miles. It was a blessing that "the economy is down" or else there would have been thousands of more people in town. No one died in the fires although some pets and animals were lost. A lot were rescued.

It is interesting ( not really the right word) to see how a house could be totally burnt to the ground but the garage still stands and the grass is still green. One clip I saw on TV was of a security camera in a living room showing the fire destroy the house. Can you imaging watching your house burn from the inside?

David

 

[Shadrach]

duplicate post
David

 

[mwilson]

Here is the video that Shad is referring to....

http://globalnews.ca/news/2685433/homeowner-watches-his-fort-mcmurray-house-burn-on-security-cam/

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Here is the video that Shad is referring to....

http://globalnews.ca/news/2685433/homeowner-watches-his-fort-mcmurray-house-burn-on-security-cam/

Less than 3.5 minutes and visibility is almost zero. New-er homes burn up pretty quick. I hope that family recovers quickly.

 

[Shadrach]

Today when I got off work the smoke in Edmonton was very noticeable and of course you could smell it. We got some rain here today and that helped but 3 major fires are still burning up North. When the fire started up in Fort Mac the air temp was over 30*C (high 80's F) and the relative humidity was about 15% and the winds were gusting 50-60 km per hour ( about 40 mph) bad combo - ideal for a fire with dry trees and under brush. People could be allowed back into the city June 1 if things go well. All open fires have been banned province wide and also use of an ATV is restricted. We have a long weekend this coming weekend and with no campfires allowed some people have cancelled their trips. This is our first official camping weekend of the season with most campgrounds being closed before now.

here is the link to the fire situation in Fort Mac http://srd.web.alberta.ca/fort-mcmurray-area-update