In the Fort Mac case, things went from 4 to 3 to 1 in a matter of hours. It started late Sunday and by Tuesday morning the authorities were issuing evac orders for sectors and at 6:20 pm the entire city was under evac. It depends on the winds and dry tinder conditions on how quickly things can escalate. Even on Monday people were just beginning to prep for the situation and Tuesday morning, parents in some areas of the city were sending their kids to school! The speed at which a fire can overtake a community is really frightening.

Communities just south of Fort Mac (a couple of thousand people) were evacuated last night (this was where the initial emergency centre was located) and today the oilfield camps north of the city with some 25k more people are being evac'd because the changing wind direction has pushed the fire around.