Originally Posted By: dougwalkabout
This is a little too close to home.

We've have unusually strong, steady winds combined with very dry surface conditions over the last week.
The same winds, gusting up to 100 kph, pushed a wildfire into the town of Slave Lake, a small community of about 7,000, about 3 hours' drive north of me. A hasty mandatory evacuation ensued and about a third of the town burned to the ground.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Thousands+flee+Slave+Lake/4790689/story.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...#articlecontent

On a personal note, the same winds totally trashed my antique windmill, which has been standing since the 1930s. I need to figure out how to put a line on the thing, which is now a widowmaker, three stories up and hanging by a thread.
But first, I'm going out to re-mow and widen a few firebreaks in case some idiot tosses a cigarette butt into the ditch.


I'm waiting to hear from my nephew. He left a cryptic message on FB about him being in h*ll, fire and brimstone, etal. He's a helitak fighter based in a couple hours away from Slave Lake and we've all been guessing that his crew was called in to be on the ground fighting this fire. He's probably out of cell phone range or else he's too busy to post from his smart phone. Either way the winds of the last couple of days (up to 100 kph) are making the firefighters job a big one. They've been calling in crews from other provinces to help as well. But nothing can be done about the fire that ravaged the town now. All that's left is to dowse the embers and prepare to rebuild.