Fort McMurray Wild Fire

[Imp]

I know this happens like a few times a year in California et al., but I think this is rarer in Canada and Fort McMurray is a well known town because of it essentially being a tar sand worker's bedroom community.

Big chunk of he city may be under mandatory evacuation.

The lower townsite and downtown area, now including MacDonald Island Park, and 10 neighbourhoods in the oilsands city have been placed under mandatory evacuation orders because of the fire.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...murray-homes-most-of-city-evacuated-1.3563977

 

[eldorado99]

Happens in BC from time to time, especially in the Okanagan.

 

[Imp]

Entire town of Fort McMurray is now supposedly under mandatory evacuation -- lot of twitter announcements, can't find an article yet because it was announced ~15 minutes ago.

To save you some googling, population is supposedly in the 60k region.

Reddit/twitter people saying the highway in/out of town is closed to the south, people heading north... Fort McMurray is one of the northern-most communities in Alberta. Huge tar sand operations are to the north.

Other details: Very very high housing prices in the town due to oil boom. They only started going down last year year, but they're still very high. This could cause a lot of economic damage if the fire really starts hitting the town -- not sure if insurance covers stuff like this.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah they're showing this on the news, this is quite insane. Sucks for those that lost their houses. :/ They're saying there are already some that burnt down but not sure how many yet. With the oil being down a lot of these people may already be in financial troubles too so that's only going to make it worse.

 

[eldorado99]

Looks like it is a pretty serious situation, over 1600 buildings have burnt down at this point and it doesn't look like they are any closer to getting a handle on it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Think this is going to be one for the history books, quite crazy. Over 70k people displaced. Other towns are now at a point where residents are taking people into their homes as hotels etc are all full.

 

[NAC4EV]

This loop image shows the last 48 hours of the Fort McMurray fire.

 

[Imp]

News is saying that the winds have picked up a lot in the past bit... Something like 50 km/h sustained, 70 km/h gusts. And there's only 2 or 3 hours of light left -- I don't think helicopters/planes can bomb at night.

Edit: Here's an interactive GIS map for reference and so I don't have to look for it later.

http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/interactive-map

Check out the Fire M3 Hotspots and Fire Perimeter Estimate layers.

 

[Imp]

Fire may now be at the aeropuerto to the SE of town. There's a webcam at the airport that may be getting overloaded right now -- by traffic. Most recent photos show smoke blanketing the area but no fire.

 

[Imp]

Well, this escalated... Mandatory evacuation for communities like 30 km south of Fort McMurray.

RCMP are currently going door to door in Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation after a mandatory evacuation order was issued. Buses will be leaving the communities at midnight.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-cut-off-as-wildfire-closes-highway-63-1.3566310

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah this is getting insane, it's mostly what the news is showing here at work, the weather is sure not helping, with all the winds.

Do they even know what caused it yet? If it's human cause, ouch to whoever is responsible.

 

[deadlyapp]

We've got a pretty decent sized shop in Ft. Mac to support the sands operations. I haven't heard yet if our building has been crisped but I know it is closed. All of our workers are accounted for at least.

 

[John Connor]

Here in the United States our forest fire fighting capability is dismal. We use old WWII planes FFS. We need to revamped our forest fire fighting techniques, add more 747's and other modern aircraft and clean up the national forests.

California is more than likely going to spark this year again.

 

[Imp]

Yeah this is getting insane, it's mostly what the news is showing here at work, the weather is sure not helping, with all the winds.

Do they even know what caused it yet? If it's human cause, ouch to whoever is responsible.

Word is that the fire started over the weekend, but it was considered to be under control until Tuesday when high winds blew it up. The temperature was like 30 C, low humidity, and it hadn't rained "properly" since early April.

 

[NAC4EV]

Driving through hell

 

[John Connor]

Why didn't they shut the plant down when they knew the fire was moving in?

 

[sandorski]

Driving through hell


FORT MCMURRAY GAS PLANT EXPLOSION

Your second link was something that happened in Mexico a few years ago.

 

[sandorski]

Here in the United States our forest fire fighting capability is dismal. We use old WWII planes FFS. We need to revamped out forest fire fighting techniques, add more 747's and other modern aircraft and clean up the national forests.

California is more than likely going to spark this year again.

Prop planes are better for this type of thing. Lower speeds, able to land on lakes for re-loading.

 

[NAC4EV]

Your second link was something that happened in Mexico a few years ago.

Wow! do you have any info on that explosion???

Never mind I found it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQX8yWwLX2Q

 

[Red Squirrel]

So over 80k displaced now, that's almost twice the population of my city, insane.

 

[Red Squirrel]

images deleted

Tracking images reported.

Don't quote them.
admin allisolm

 

[John Connor]

Prop planes are better for this type of thing. Lower speeds, able to land on lakes for re-loading.

Wasn't talking about prop planes.... Was referring to old WWII planes. They are not safe. I have an audio recording of radio traffic of one that went down here in Colorado. I recorded that shit on my scanner! And it happens all too often.

 

[NAC4EV]

IMO
Variable pitch turboprop aircraft are very effective.
They're able to land on lakes and rivers for re-loading.
The wing is high above the fuselage and designed for the purpose.
Jet aircraft must use an airport to reload. The wing/engines are generally below the fuselage.

The Bombardier 415 Superscooper

 

[sandorski]

Wasn't talking about prop planes.... Was referring to old WWII planes. They are not safe. I have an audio recording of radio traffic of one that went down here in Colorado. I recorded that shit on my scanner! And it happens all too often.

You mentioned 747's, Jet Planes.

 

[Imp]

Bank of Montreal guestimating insurance costs could go up to $9 billion.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fort-mcmurray-insurance-cost-1.3568113

I'm reading people talk about how this will be great for the economy. Ya, that money has to come from somewhere... Good luck to the half dozen or so major banks/insurers that may go insolvent. The town's in the middle of nowhere so an insurer or two may be carrying more coverage than others.

Also, apparently a new school burned down, and a hotel at the airport.