Fort Mac

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maple1

maple1

Minister of Fire
Sep 15, 2011
11,083
Nova Scotia
This is brutal.

Everyone here is either related to or knows someone who is fleeing the fires.

Tragic stuff - just very glad that no lives have been lost.
 
88,000 people evacuated ... immense job assisting all of them. Stories of folks that have escaped harm by minutes. Wildfires are so bad in so many ways... potential loss of life & property, damage to atmosphere, loss of $$ from woodland operations.
 
Saw that on the news today. Looks awful. Hope for the best.
 
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Tried to link a FB vid from a TV station FB site, but it's not showing up.
 
Tried to link a FB vid from a TV station FB site, but it's not showing up.
Click to expand...

Fixed it.
 
Terrifying.
 
Manitoba can't send bombers as their fire season has already started. Ontario sending 100 wildland fire fighters but we have already had fires in our area ... very dry with little snow this winter and no amount of rain yet.

PS. Early evacuation centres are being evacuated as the winds have shifted driving fire south:(
 
That is devastating.

We set monthly records for rainfall from October to March. Then as if someone flipped the switch we have been dry since April 1. We're going to need some May and June rains or we will be repeating last years fires too.
 
By the numbers so far:
80,000+:number of people displaced in northern Alberta
85,000: size of the fire in hectares as of Thursday, May 5 (that’s 850 square kilometres, or roughly 210,000 acres)
1,600: number of structures destroyed in Fort McMurray and the surrounding area (as of Wednesday afternoon; no updated figure yet available)
49: Total number of fires burning in the region as of Thursday.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/key-nu...scope-of-the-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-1.2889510
 
I know there are some pine that need fire to dry out cones so they split to seed...

Article didn't touch on the fact that when it gets that big, fire will generate its own wind. New fact for me, apparently also generates its own lightning too.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-creates-its-own-lightning-1.3568325

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/...ters-saving-houses-in-fort-mcmurray-1.3568037
30 hours non-stop ... portions of the community saved including the hospital, most of the airport (lost their airport fire dept) and water treatment plant from what I've seen.
 
Heard today that firefighters are saying that they will not be able to put out this fire with air tankers. They think only rain will help... and there's none in sight.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
 
It won't be quick or easy by any means, but most of what has burned will come back eventually. Just still hoping for no loss of life. There are mountains of vids & images of this event on the net now - some truly truly scary stuff.
 
begreen said:
Heard today that firefighters are saying that they will not be able to put out this fire with air tankers.
Click to expand...

Help from additional water bombers will be missed, but they're not a panacea. They seldom put out a fire if it's bigger than a few dozen acres. Like most wildfire fighting efforts, they can help direct the fire around a home, slow it down as it approaches a containment line so it doesn't jump the line, or mop up isolated hot spots to keep them from reigniting. Fighting a large fire almost always depends on well-planned, laborious containment and help from the weather.
 
vinny11950 said:
And this one says the tree species are "hard wired for fire". Something I didn't know.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/News/11896164/story.html
Click to expand...

I recall that being discussed with regards to lodgepole pine during the big Yellowstone fire in 1988. Not only have weather conditions been favorable to fires this past year, but in some species, fires killing off an area and clearing it for a new generation is part of the normal generational succession - a process called serotiny.
 
View from my deck this afternoon, approximately 400 km from a 13000 hectare fire Nopoming Park/Woodland Caribou Park on the Manitoba/Ontario border with smoke being pushed by a northwest wind... the normal view on the right.
 

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I certainly hope lessons are learned from this. I read an article that the town of Whistler BC has already begun implementing a fire control/barrier program. Weather patterns are certainly changing! We are 2-3 weeks ahead from any spring season in terms of snow melt, etc.

Andrew
 
I honestly don't know that something like that could be stopped, with any kind of barrier or fire break.

After all, it jumped the Athabasca River, and that is a pretty formidable looking thing, fire-break wise.

The fire is still going, also, and doing a lot of damage. Sad deal.
 
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