Some 80,000 people were officially told to evacuate after homes in some neighbourhoods were burned out in Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. Evacuation is mandatory. Conditions are tinder dry, after a very dry winter and spring, forest fires have crept up to the outskirts of town. The problem is, Fort Mac is serviced by only 1 major highway and it is in total gridlock as people try to leave. This is the largest fire evacuation that has ever been in Alberta and bigger than the Slave Lake evacuation in 2011.

This is after the NDP government of the day decided to cut back on the firefighting budget this year even though it was obviously this was going to be a severe fire fighting year.

Where do 80,000 people go on a moment's notice? Hopefully, the residents had their plans in place and the BOBs all loaded.

Last year in my province of Saskatchewan we had the town of La Ronge and other communities evacuated when fire burned to the outskirts - that was a mere 13,000 people and were housed in centres all over the province.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada...reach-city-edge

I'm following this too. It went bad with frightening speed.

Fort Mc is surrounded by boreal forest, spruce and pine. It's Crown (public) land, so it's not intensely managed. Crews have been gearing up a month earlier than usual, anticipating a bad fire season.

Conditions are incredibly hot and dry throughout Alberta this spring. (I'm 500 km south of Fort Mc, and we're under full fire bans everywhere around here.)

After a calm night, the temperature hit 32C, humidity 15%. The winds came up and shifted direction, allowing the fire to jump the fire breaks and two rivers. Under these conditions, fires make up their own rules.

I doubt many people are well prepared for evacuation. An event of this scale and speed is very rare and outside of their experience. Northerners are a resilient lot, but this is bad business.

One of my nephews is in the area but not Fort Mac itself. He's an accountant for one of the oil companies so he only flys up a couple times a month. He's patiently waiting for his evac notice which will likely be by plane.

The call for all types of firefighting experienced volunteers has gone out. Edmonton is providing many of its members that can be spared to go into that area. Since one of my other nephews is a Calgary FF with prior experience as a Helitak firefighter, he might volunteer for action as well. Check that - I just heard he is headed out of country for a wedding. Resources from neighbouring provinces are ready to go as soon as the word is given.

I would hope that teams from your neighbor to the south would assist. I'm pretty sure we have hosted some of you in our more exciting clam bakes...

Wishing you well! It's been a few years since I've been to Manitoba and Saskatchewan but even then between the dryness and the pine beetles with forests looked pretty rough.

Scary stuff. Stay safe if you're in the area.





It sounds like the evacuations have been a nightmare. Better to have a solid personal bug-out plan than to rely on last minute plans from the powers that be, perhaps, but those winds seem to make running from wildfires a sketchy at best. Kudos to everyone trying to help!

Consider that the safest place to be in a unpredictable firestorm is within an area that is already burned.

Best wishes to those in a very nasty situation...

Have a Plan and a Full Tank of Gas

Residential Destruction Wildfire Update at 4:00 am

Some of the sections of town have been heavily damaged or destroyed. Approx. 1600 structures destroyed; fire is approx. 10,000 hectares in size and is expected to grow today with temps in the low 30s Celsius. Fire began on Sunday, cause unknown yet.
The pictures coming out of the area are disheartening and devastating.

So- good to have a bug out bag and plan...