10 ms·

The Massive Wildfire Burning in Alberta

165 points by curtis 11y ago

dchmiel 11y ago
The speed that the fire spread is incredible. It seemed just like another forest fire that is near a community we get up in Alberta and British Columbia. The coverage by the National Post shows the fire just creeping around Ft. McMurray on May 2 and 3 and by May 4 a large portion of the town was engulfed. [1] Before and after photos show the burnt homes and buildings like schools. [2] I live in Edmonton (4.5 hours south of Ft. McMurray) which is taking in a lot of evacuees. It's so heart warming to see so many people rise up and try to help everyone by donating places to sleep, someone put up a website to help facilitate http://www.ymmfire.ca http://www.ymmfire.ca. 2 blocks from my home is a drop off for supplies and all you hear is car horns of support and people waiting to drop off supplies. People drove up the previous days with pickup trucks to bring gasoline and supplies to motorist stranded on the highway. [3] The most heartwarming of the stories to me is hearing of recent refugees helping out. [4] “We understand what they’re feeling. When you lose everything, you have to start from zero. You lose your memories, your items. It’s not easy. It’s something very sad. We can totally understand their feeling. We are very thankful to the Canadian people and we want to be a part of this society. We will do our best to be a good part of this society. By doing that, maybe we can return a little bit of the great job that Canadian people did for us” It feels good to see the support from the newcomers, people in the province and seeing our provincial and federal governments step in with resources and funding to fight the fire and help people. 1. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/tracking-the-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-the-flames-have-consumed-101000-hectares-and-show-no-sign-of-stopping http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/tracking-the-fort-m... 2. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/see-stunning-before-and-after http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/see-stunning-before... 3. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/national/inside+fort+mcmurray+rescue+convoys+99ve+been+trying+hours+find/11899495/story.html http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/national/inside+fort+mcm... 4. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/understand+what+they+feeling+syrian+refugees+calgary+step+help+fort+mcmurray/11898904/story.html http://www.edmontonjournal.com/understand+what+they+feeling+... Edits to links.
- mig39 11y ago
  That is a great description. This fire had been raging South of town for a few days. Some southern neighbourhoods were evacuated temporarily. We woke up on Tuesday and the sky was blue, and the fire was largely contained. Then it jumped the Athabasca River (which is a kilometre wide). That's when panic set it. I live in the Thickwood neighbourhood. We went from "hey, better get organized in case we need to evacuate" to "get the hell out now!" in about 20 minutes.
- mackb1991 11y ago
  I built and posted the ymmfire.ca site on Tuesday evening to help the first wave of evacuees driving down. The response of people opening their homes, recreational properties, and spaces has been incredibly overwhelming. We're still helping match people but I've changed things up so I'm not the bottle neck now. We're expecting (and hoping) that the highway will stay clear enough for more convoys over the next few days. Please donate to the Red Cross to help the over 80,000 displaced: https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=50610 https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=195... And if you have a site, maybe consider adding a link to donate. I built some low tech copy and paste banners that you can find here: http://ymmfire.ca/redcross http://ymmfire.ca/redcross
protomyth 11y ago
It would be the reason oil prices have gone up as it has spread to the oil-sands http://www.wsj.com/articles/alberta-evacuations-expanded-as-fires-spread-1462468738 http://www.wsj.com/articles/alberta-evacuations-expanded-as-...
- randlet 11y ago
  Fort Mac is really a boom town and it's my understanding that most of the residents of Fort Mac are employed directly or indirectly by oil & gas. Production will certainly be hurting in that area for a while to come.
  - beenswervin 11y ago
    Yup. Canadian dollar is being hurt by this too
  - madaxe_again 11y ago
    Everyone seems to be either not considering or unaware of the tar sands relationship with the fire - surely ripping up millions of hectares of vegetation, which helps drive rainfall, has had some impact towards the severity of the fire.
orasis 11y ago
We got hit with the smoke today here in Montana.
- wglb 11y ago
  Growing up in Montana not far from US2 we would quite often get the smoke from the forest fires straight west from us. Getting the Alberta smoke from around Yellowstone is quite impressive and frightening.
- fnbr 11y ago
  I doubt the smoke you're seeing is from Fort McMurray. I live in Edmonton and we have beautiful clear skies- no smoke to be seen.
  - tonyarkles 11y ago
    We've had haze in Saskatoon for the last day or so. Might just be the way the winds are blowing? Or maybe there are other fires on the go.
    - fnbr 11y ago
      I think you're right. But if you draw a straight line from Fort McMurray to Montana, it passes very close to Edmonton, so I doubt they'd see smoke in Montana from Fort McMurray while Edmonton has no smoke.
      - ChoGGi 11y ago
        Just to add as a Lethbridge (about 100 km north of Montana) resident, on Fri we had scattered clouds. No smoke/smell that I've noticed.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    It's quite a plume. The synthetic image on the top left is showing where the smoke is affecting air quality: http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ It's interesting to compare with the earlier reports. It was barely visible 5 days ago.
randlet 11y ago
80 000 people being evacuated. Amazingly there has only been a single person killed to date as far as I'm aware of. The Canadian government is matching Red Cross donations FWIW [1] [1] https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?gclid=CjwKEAjwgbG5BRDp3oW3qdPiuCwSJAAQmoSDQc1Moexj2OZ5AbywQyKFefs4pMA5-q9Q65PFddmXEhoClqTw_wcB&ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=50639 https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?gclid=CjwKEAjwgb...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- giarc 11y ago
  Two people died in the car accident on Hwy 63. For some reason they heavily reported just the single girl (she was a triplet).
  - randlet 11y ago
    Hadn't seen that covered. Thanks for the correction.
Aelinsaar 11y ago
That's a hell of a series of images... really drives home the insane amount of power in such a large fire.
ortusdux 11y ago
I did not realize the scope of this fire. The official Canadian disaster database lists the Great Ice Storm of 1998 as the costliest disaster in the nation's history. Adjusted for inflation, that storm caused 4.6 billion in damages. If the estimate in this article is accurate, this fire will be the most expensive natural disaster in Canada's history by a factor of two. It will beat out the combined cost of the top 5 disasters on the list. http://cdd.publicsafety.gc.ca/rslts-eng.aspx?cultureCode=en-Ca&boundingBox=&provinces=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13&eventTypes=&eventStartDate=&injured=&evacuated=&totalCost=1000000,10000000000&dead=&normalizedCostYear=1 http://cdd.publicsafety.gc.ca/rslts-eng.aspx?cultureCode=en-...
- msbarnett 11y ago
  > I did not realize the scope of this fire. And it's still expected to double in size, again, overnight tonight. It is, thankfully, being blown away from populated areas at this point in time.
maerF0x0 11y ago
suddenly the preppers dont seem so crazy afterall .
- vkou 11y ago
  I'm sure their truckloads of ammunition turned out to be quite helpful through this ordeal.
  - maerF0x0 11y ago
    not the ammunition. The bug out bags, food and water, bed rolls, escape strategies, family emergency plans. Those kinds of things. Yeah ammo and guns is just scary.
    - maxerickson 11y ago
      That's bog standard disaster planning these days, being prepared in case it is necessary to evacuate your residence. In the US it's recommended by various agencies. Prepping can probably be reserved for people getting ready for the end of civilized society.
    - jrnichols 11y ago
      > Yeah ammo and guns is just scary. Until you realize that one deer can help feed your whole family.
      - maerF0x0 11y ago
        yeah as a tool useful. Many prepper groups suggest stockpiling for a coming war and also because ammo will be a good currency.
        jrnichols 11y ago
        I wouldn't disagree with them about it being a useful barter item. Never know when that crate of .45-70 Government will come in handy. ;-)
mcmatterson 11y ago
Those photos are nothing compared to some of the firsthand videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fort+mcmurray++dash+cam https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fort+mcmurray++... It's honestly like something straight out of an apocalypse movie. Horrifying.
- pyre 11y ago
  It's what it's like when forest fires engulf a community. Here's a couple others: - http://s1.webmshare.com/m7gd8.webm http://s1.webmshare.com/m7gd8.webm Russia 2015(?) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPpOXH0ADSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPpOXH0ADSg Australia 2003
- arcticfox 11y ago
  Wow...horrifying indeed :( For some reason, I found these front-yard bushes casually on fire some of the most dramatic images: https://youtu.be/PCc1FvZ3g0Q?t=134 https://youtu.be/PCc1FvZ3g0Q?t=134 Probably because that side of the street looks relatively normal except for, you know, that well groomed plant is on fire.
  - tremon 11y ago
    Yes, it's also what stuck out to me. As he drives away, you can see the fire consume the entire bush (looked like a fallen down tree to me?) and develop into a five-meter long torch.
- fraXis 11y ago
  This is a video of the fire actually overtaking the inside of a fleeing resident's house. It was caught on his home security camera. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-man-watches-his-home-burn-on-security-cam-1.3570690 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-man-wat...
- giarc 11y ago
  I live in Alberta (Calgary) so have obviously been following this closely. Two things stand out in the videos. 1. People are still very courteous while evacuating. I imagined it would be people driving across lawns and through parks. Instead most people are driving on the proper side of the street and letting others in. 2. We shouldn't take forest fires for granted and we should evacuate earlier. Tuesday morning this fire was a non story, then without warning people are driving down their street with 60m flames on the sidewalk. And not just a few hold outs, majority of the population came very close to injury or death. Fort McMurray has basically one way in and out (Hwy 63). If it had been blocked in both directors, this would be a much different story.
lisper 11y ago
Brace yourselves, folks. This is the new normal.
- Tiktaalik 11y ago
  Absolutely. There's a great deal of evidence that the frequency of severe forest fires is increasing and this is a significant problem. Now is a good time to discuss this. http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/fort-mcmurray-and-the-fires-of-climate-change http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/fort-mcmurray-an...
  - joveian 11y ago
    It seems unlikely that much of this is actually due to climate change, but rather due to the way forests are managed (although this may be different in Canada where the forest area to people ratio is much higher). I don't have a good link handy but much has been written on this topic. In short, in the US at least there has been an attempt to avoid all forest fires, which leads to fewer fires that are more severe when they do happen. I don't remember the details and can't find the article, but it was mentioned that one area of the forest near last year's Oregon fire was under different management techniques and fared relatively well.
    - lisper 11y ago
      You can, of course, never know whether any particular fire is due to climate change or not. But there is no question that climate change is dramatically increasing the number and intensity of wildfires in western North America because of decreased precipitation. That, combined with increased human settlement in what were once wilderness areas, virtually guarantees that this sort of thing is going to happen more and more often, hence "the new normal." http://www.adn.com/article/20150810/2015-alaska-wildfire-season-now-2nd-biggest-record http://www.adn.com/article/20150810/2015-alaska-wildfire-sea... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/01/06/2015-wildfire-season-just-set-an-amazing-and-troubling-new-record/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
acomjean 11y ago
I always like NASA's earth observatories satellite images and analysis http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87985 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87985 apparently a really hot spring http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87992 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87992
- saalweachter 11y ago
  > As of May 4, the fire had burned almost 77 square kilometers (7,700 hectares), and its cause was still under investigation. Fire restrictions were in place for most of the province due to hot, dry conditions. While the cause of this particular fire is still unknown, and there's a whole debate to be had on forest management, the Smokey the Bear PSA is still worthwhile: don't start fires you ain't supposed to. Every year or two in my part of the world there's a decent sized forest fire started by some idiot who couldn't wait for the wet season to burn off his brush.
- tremon 11y ago
  From what I can tell from that first NASA image, the fire jumped across a >20m wide river (not sure of the scale)? Is that common?
  - JshWright 11y ago
    Absolutely. It depends on the topography and fuel loads, but all it takes is for the wind to carry a burning ember (which are generated in _huge_ quantities in such a fire).
YZF 11y ago
Reminds me of travelling near a large forest fire in Australia. The sky was covered with smoke such that the middle of the day was almost dark as night. Ash fell from the sky. Pretty scary. Took hours of driving to get away from that.
- err4nt 11y ago
  We were driving east out of Montana when there were bad fires a number of years ago. The sky was lit up but looked black, and we were driving parallel to the mountain range. As the sun set behind the mountains, through the smoke the sun appeared blood red. And after it set behind the peaks, it got really dark.
xufi 11y ago
I heard this place gets fires pretty often but nothing to this extent yet. Glad they're getting lifted to Edmonton as soon as possible. This reminds me of the Australian wildfire seasons too and how those seem to get out of hand and and go on on for weeks
powera 11y ago
A reminder that the best way to have large forest fires is to constantly prevent small forest fires.
- gizmo686 11y ago
  I think you have that backwards. The way to prevent large forest fires is to regularly have small (preferably controlled) forest fires. Otherwise, forests accumulate undergrowth which makes the inevitable fire even bigger.
  - mikeklaas 11y ago
    That's what powers said…
  - gajomi 11y ago
    That's what I was thinking in seeing all of these photos/videos. What kind of controlled burn strategies does Alberta province have in place? I know that before these kind of policies were implemented in the Pacific northwest of the United States you would semi-periodically have disastrous wildfires, which are now largely mitigated by way of controlled burns to limit the extent and intensity of fires. I would like to think that similar strategies have been implemented in Alberta/BC but don't actually know the facts. Anyone want to chime in?
    - cbowal 11y ago
      There is definitely a controlled burn programme. http://www.wildfire.alberta.ca/prescribed-fires/default.aspx http://www.wildfire.alberta.ca/prescribed-fires/default.aspx
2trill2spill 11y ago
It's incredibly smoky here in Minneapolis I can only imagine what it's like in Alberta.
- mitchty 11y ago
  Seems not too bad in St Paul, though to the west looks not great. https://weather.com/safety/wildfires/news/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-from-space-images https://weather.com/safety/wildfires/news/fort-mcmurray-wild...
known 11y ago
Sometime back I intended to go for http://www.canadavisa.com/alberta-provincial-nominee-program.html http://www.canadavisa.com/alberta-provincial-nominee-program...
codecamper 11y ago
I don't want photos. I want an article. Tell me why this fire is happening. Pine beetles? Yes, well so much for investigative reporting, but if you just search for "pine beetles alberta" you will see photos that show the area that is burning was attacked about 10 years ago by pine beetle. welcome to global warming. wait a sec... Alberta? Fort McMurray!? I don't believe in karma, but I could change my mind. After all, the alberta tar sands project -- one of the most ecologically destructive projects on the planet is right there in Fort MucMurray. Amazing
- milesf 11y ago
  Or, one could argue it is the largest cleanup operation on the planet. It would also be correct to state that the greatest lifesaver in Fort Mac is... oil. Cars, trucks, planes, helicopters all being powered by oil to save lives. I for one am happy we are moving to electric vehicles, but we will face another set of problems dealing with lithium. We also would not be having this conversation if it were not the petrolium industry. My point is this is a human event, with real lives at stake (my brother being one of them, who managed to escape to Edmonton). Let's leave 'karma' out of this, and move forward to make our world better.
- forgetsusername 11y ago
  >welcome to global warming. Maybe people wouldn't doubt climate change if every single negative thing that happens in nature wasn't attributed to it. Massive burns aren't exactly a new phenomenon. >wait a sec... Alberta? Fort McMurray!? I don't believe in karma, but I could change my mind. Karma will get you too. Maybe post here when it does so we can say you deserved it.
  - blondie9x 11y ago
    It's the overall aggregate trend that's concerning and in line with climatic models from 80s. We are seeing temperatures spike year over year, droughts intensify, floods worsen, storms strengthening, sea levels rising, and species extinction levels increasing.
- worldvoyageur 11y ago
blondie9x 11y ago
Seeing these photos, watching the videos, you really start to understand how terrible climate change has become and still how much worse it will get if we don't transition faster. All these natural disasters are really starting to effect us all. We need to act swiftly. Carbon energy must end.
- mertd 11y ago
  Why do you think this particular wildfire is due to climate change?
  - mikegioia 11y ago
    The ground is warmer (and therefore drier) now in May, and this is especially so in the Boreal Forest of Canada where temps. have been rising much faster than they have in the mid latitudes. This year the fire season started very early, and temperatures in the region have been at record levels for days, with some areas reaching above 30 C. From http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2016/05/05/roaring-inferno-alberta-climate-change-looks-like/ http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2016/05/05/roaring-infe... I think this has a lot to do with climate change. If the average temperatures are warmer and the air/ground is drier, it can increase the likelihood, frequency, and severity of wildfires. Colorado and California have been/will be going through the same thing.

165 points by curtis 11y ago

The speed that the fire spread is incredible. It seemed just like another forest fire that is near a community we get up in Alberta and British Columbia. The coverage by the National Post shows the fire just creeping around Ft. McMurray on May 2 and 3 and by May 4 a large portion of the town was engulfed. [1] Before and after photos show the burnt homes and buildings like schools. [2] I live in Edmonton (4.5 hours south of Ft. McMurray) which is taking in a lot of evacuees. It's so heart warming to see so many people rise up and try to help everyone by donating places to sleep, someone put up a website to help facilitate http://www.ymmfire.ca http://www.ymmfire.ca. 2 blocks from my home is a drop off for supplies and all you hear is car horns of support and people waiting to drop off supplies. People drove up the previous days with pickup trucks to bring gasoline and supplies to motorist stranded on the highway. [3] The most heartwarming of the stories to me is hearing of recent refugees helping out. [4] “We understand what they’re feeling. When you lose everything, you have to start from zero. You lose your memories, your items. It’s not easy. It’s something very sad. We can totally understand their feeling. We are very thankful to the Canadian people and we want to be a part of this society. We will do our best to be a good part of this society. By doing that, maybe we can return a little bit of the great job that Canadian people did for us” It feels good to see the support from the newcomers, people in the province and seeing our provincial and federal governments step in with resources and funding to fight the fire and help people. 1. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/tracking-the-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-the-flames-have-consumed-101000-hectares-and-show-no-sign-of-stopping http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/tracking-the-fort-m... 2. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/see-stunning-before-and-after http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/see-stunning-before... 3. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/national/inside+fort+mcmurray+rescue+convoys+99ve+been+trying+hours+find/11899495/story.html http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/national/inside+fort+mcm... 4. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/understand+what+they+feeling+syrian+refugees+calgary+step+help+fort+mcmurray/11898904/story.html http://www.edmontonjournal.com/understand+what+they+feeling+... Edits to links.

mig39 11y ago
That is a great description. This fire had been raging South of town for a few days. Some southern neighbourhoods were evacuated temporarily. We woke up on Tuesday and the sky was blue, and the fire was largely contained. Then it jumped the Athabasca River (which is a kilometre wide). That's when panic set it. I live in the Thickwood neighbourhood. We went from "hey, better get organized in case we need to evacuate" to "get the hell out now!" in about 20 minutes.
mackb1991 11y ago
I built and posted the ymmfire.ca site on Tuesday evening to help the first wave of evacuees driving down. The response of people opening their homes, recreational properties, and spaces has been incredibly overwhelming. We're still helping match people but I've changed things up so I'm not the bottle neck now. We're expecting (and hoping) that the highway will stay clear enough for more convoys over the next few days. Please donate to the Red Cross to help the over 80,000 displaced: https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=50610 https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=195... And if you have a site, maybe consider adding a link to donate. I built some low tech copy and paste banners that you can find here: http://ymmfire.ca/redcross http://ymmfire.ca/redcross

protomyth 11y ago

It would be the reason oil prices have gone up as it has spread to the oil-sands http://www.wsj.com/articles/alberta-evacuations-expanded-as-fires-spread-1462468738 http://www.wsj.com/articles/alberta-evacuations-expanded-as-...

randlet 11y ago
Fort Mac is really a boom town and it's my understanding that most of the residents of Fort Mac are employed directly or indirectly by oil & gas. Production will certainly be hurting in that area for a while to come.
- beenswervin 11y ago
  Yup. Canadian dollar is being hurt by this too
- madaxe_again 11y ago
  Everyone seems to be either not considering or unaware of the tar sands relationship with the fire - surely ripping up millions of hectares of vegetation, which helps drive rainfall, has had some impact towards the severity of the fire.

orasis 11y ago

We got hit with the smoke today here in Montana.

wglb 11y ago
Growing up in Montana not far from US2 we would quite often get the smoke from the forest fires straight west from us. Getting the Alberta smoke from around Yellowstone is quite impressive and frightening.
fnbr 11y ago
I doubt the smoke you're seeing is from Fort McMurray. I live in Edmonton and we have beautiful clear skies- no smoke to be seen.
- tonyarkles 11y ago
  We've had haze in Saskatoon for the last day or so. Might just be the way the winds are blowing? Or maybe there are other fires on the go.
  - fnbr 11y ago
    I think you're right. But if you draw a straight line from Fort McMurray to Montana, it passes very close to Edmonton, so I doubt they'd see smoke in Montana from Fort McMurray while Edmonton has no smoke.
    - ChoGGi 11y ago
      Just to add as a Lethbridge (about 100 km north of Montana) resident, on Fri we had scattered clouds. No smoke/smell that I've noticed.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  It's quite a plume. The synthetic image on the top left is showing where the smoke is affecting air quality: http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ It's interesting to compare with the earlier reports. It was barely visible 5 days ago.

randlet 11y ago

80 000 people being evacuated. Amazingly there has only been a single person killed to date as far as I'm aware of. The Canadian government is matching Red Cross donations FWIW [1] [1] https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?gclid=CjwKEAjwgbG5BRDp3oW3qdPiuCwSJAAQmoSDQc1Moexj2OZ5AbywQyKFefs4pMA5-q9Q65PFddmXEhoClqTw_wcB&ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=50639 https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?gclid=CjwKEAjwgb...

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
giarc 11y ago
Two people died in the car accident on Hwy 63. For some reason they heavily reported just the single girl (she was a triplet).
- randlet 11y ago
  Hadn't seen that covered. Thanks for the correction.

Aelinsaar 11y ago

That's a hell of a series of images... really drives home the insane amount of power in such a large fire.

ortusdux 11y ago

I did not realize the scope of this fire. The official Canadian disaster database lists the Great Ice Storm of 1998 as the costliest disaster in the nation's history. Adjusted for inflation, that storm caused 4.6 billion in damages. If the estimate in this article is accurate, this fire will be the most expensive natural disaster in Canada's history by a factor of two. It will beat out the combined cost of the top 5 disasters on the list. http://cdd.publicsafety.gc.ca/rslts-eng.aspx?cultureCode=en-Ca&boundingBox=&provinces=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13&eventTypes=&eventStartDate=&injured=&evacuated=&totalCost=1000000,10000000000&dead=&normalizedCostYear=1 http://cdd.publicsafety.gc.ca/rslts-eng.aspx?cultureCode=en-...

msbarnett 11y ago
> I did not realize the scope of this fire. And it's still expected to double in size, again, overnight tonight. It is, thankfully, being blown away from populated areas at this point in time.

maerF0x0 11y ago

suddenly the preppers dont seem so crazy afterall .

vkou 11y ago
I'm sure their truckloads of ammunition turned out to be quite helpful through this ordeal.
- maerF0x0 11y ago
  not the ammunition. The bug out bags, food and water, bed rolls, escape strategies, family emergency plans. Those kinds of things. Yeah ammo and guns is just scary.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    That's bog standard disaster planning these days, being prepared in case it is necessary to evacuate your residence. In the US it's recommended by various agencies. Prepping can probably be reserved for people getting ready for the end of civilized society.
  - jrnichols 11y ago
    > Yeah ammo and guns is just scary. Until you realize that one deer can help feed your whole family.
    - maerF0x0 11y ago
      yeah as a tool useful. Many prepper groups suggest stockpiling for a coming war and also because ammo will be a good currency.
      - jrnichols 11y ago
        I wouldn't disagree with them about it being a useful barter item. Never know when that crate of .45-70 Government will come in handy. ;-)

mcmatterson 11y ago

Those photos are nothing compared to some of the firsthand videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fort+mcmurray++dash+cam https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fort+mcmurray++... It's honestly like something straight out of an apocalypse movie. Horrifying.

pyre 11y ago
It's what it's like when forest fires engulf a community. Here's a couple others: - http://s1.webmshare.com/m7gd8.webm http://s1.webmshare.com/m7gd8.webm Russia 2015(?) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPpOXH0ADSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPpOXH0ADSg Australia 2003
arcticfox 11y ago
Wow...horrifying indeed :( For some reason, I found these front-yard bushes casually on fire some of the most dramatic images: https://youtu.be/PCc1FvZ3g0Q?t=134 https://youtu.be/PCc1FvZ3g0Q?t=134 Probably because that side of the street looks relatively normal except for, you know, that well groomed plant is on fire.
- tremon 11y ago
  Yes, it's also what stuck out to me. As he drives away, you can see the fire consume the entire bush (looked like a fallen down tree to me?) and develop into a five-meter long torch.
fraXis 11y ago
This is a video of the fire actually overtaking the inside of a fleeing resident's house. It was caught on his home security camera. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-man-watches-his-home-burn-on-security-cam-1.3570690 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-man-wat...
giarc 11y ago
I live in Alberta (Calgary) so have obviously been following this closely. Two things stand out in the videos. 1. People are still very courteous while evacuating. I imagined it would be people driving across lawns and through parks. Instead most people are driving on the proper side of the street and letting others in. 2. We shouldn't take forest fires for granted and we should evacuate earlier. Tuesday morning this fire was a non story, then without warning people are driving down their street with 60m flames on the sidewalk. And not just a few hold outs, majority of the population came very close to injury or death. Fort McMurray has basically one way in and out (Hwy 63). If it had been blocked in both directors, this would be a much different story.

lisper 11y ago

Brace yourselves, folks. This is the new normal.

Tiktaalik 11y ago
Absolutely. There's a great deal of evidence that the frequency of severe forest fires is increasing and this is a significant problem. Now is a good time to discuss this. http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/fort-mcmurray-and-the-fires-of-climate-change http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/fort-mcmurray-an...
- joveian 11y ago
  It seems unlikely that much of this is actually due to climate change, but rather due to the way forests are managed (although this may be different in Canada where the forest area to people ratio is much higher). I don't have a good link handy but much has been written on this topic. In short, in the US at least there has been an attempt to avoid all forest fires, which leads to fewer fires that are more severe when they do happen. I don't remember the details and can't find the article, but it was mentioned that one area of the forest near last year's Oregon fire was under different management techniques and fared relatively well.
  - lisper 11y ago
    You can, of course, never know whether any particular fire is due to climate change or not. But there is no question that climate change is dramatically increasing the number and intensity of wildfires in western North America because of decreased precipitation. That, combined with increased human settlement in what were once wilderness areas, virtually guarantees that this sort of thing is going to happen more and more often, hence "the new normal." http://www.adn.com/article/20150810/2015-alaska-wildfire-season-now-2nd-biggest-record http://www.adn.com/article/20150810/2015-alaska-wildfire-sea... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/01/06/2015-wildfire-season-just-set-an-amazing-and-troubling-new-record/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...

acomjean 11y ago

I always like NASA's earth observatories satellite images and analysis http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87985 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87985 apparently a really hot spring http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87992 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87992

saalweachter 11y ago
> As of May 4, the fire had burned almost 77 square kilometers (7,700 hectares), and its cause was still under investigation. Fire restrictions were in place for most of the province due to hot, dry conditions. While the cause of this particular fire is still unknown, and there's a whole debate to be had on forest management, the Smokey the Bear PSA is still worthwhile: don't start fires you ain't supposed to. Every year or two in my part of the world there's a decent sized forest fire started by some idiot who couldn't wait for the wet season to burn off his brush.
tremon 11y ago
From what I can tell from that first NASA image, the fire jumped across a >20m wide river (not sure of the scale)? Is that common?
- JshWright 11y ago
  Absolutely. It depends on the topography and fuel loads, but all it takes is for the wind to carry a burning ember (which are generated in _huge_ quantities in such a fire).

YZF 11y ago

Reminds me of travelling near a large forest fire in Australia. The sky was covered with smoke such that the middle of the day was almost dark as night. Ash fell from the sky. Pretty scary. Took hours of driving to get away from that.

err4nt 11y ago
We were driving east out of Montana when there were bad fires a number of years ago. The sky was lit up but looked black, and we were driving parallel to the mountain range. As the sun set behind the mountains, through the smoke the sun appeared blood red. And after it set behind the peaks, it got really dark.

xufi 11y ago

I heard this place gets fires pretty often but nothing to this extent yet. Glad they're getting lifted to Edmonton as soon as possible. This reminds me of the Australian wildfire seasons too and how those seem to get out of hand and and go on on for weeks

powera 11y ago

A reminder that the best way to have large forest fires is to constantly prevent small forest fires.

gizmo686 11y ago
I think you have that backwards. The way to prevent large forest fires is to regularly have small (preferably controlled) forest fires. Otherwise, forests accumulate undergrowth which makes the inevitable fire even bigger.
- mikeklaas 11y ago
  That's what powers said…
- gajomi 11y ago
  That's what I was thinking in seeing all of these photos/videos. What kind of controlled burn strategies does Alberta province have in place? I know that before these kind of policies were implemented in the Pacific northwest of the United States you would semi-periodically have disastrous wildfires, which are now largely mitigated by way of controlled burns to limit the extent and intensity of fires. I would like to think that similar strategies have been implemented in Alberta/BC but don't actually know the facts. Anyone want to chime in?
  - cbowal 11y ago
    There is definitely a controlled burn programme. http://www.wildfire.alberta.ca/prescribed-fires/default.aspx http://www.wildfire.alberta.ca/prescribed-fires/default.aspx

2trill2spill 11y ago

It's incredibly smoky here in Minneapolis I can only imagine what it's like in Alberta.

mitchty 11y ago
Seems not too bad in St Paul, though to the west looks not great. https://weather.com/safety/wildfires/news/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-from-space-images https://weather.com/safety/wildfires/news/fort-mcmurray-wild...

known 11y ago

Sometime back I intended to go for http://www.canadavisa.com/alberta-provincial-nominee-program.html http://www.canadavisa.com/alberta-provincial-nominee-program...

codecamper 11y ago

I don't want photos. I want an article. Tell me why this fire is happening. Pine beetles? Yes, well so much for investigative reporting, but if you just search for "pine beetles alberta" you will see photos that show the area that is burning was attacked about 10 years ago by pine beetle. welcome to global warming. wait a sec... Alberta? Fort McMurray!? I don't believe in karma, but I could change my mind. After all, the alberta tar sands project -- one of the most ecologically destructive projects on the planet is right there in Fort MucMurray. Amazing

milesf 11y ago
Or, one could argue it is the largest cleanup operation on the planet. It would also be correct to state that the greatest lifesaver in Fort Mac is... oil. Cars, trucks, planes, helicopters all being powered by oil to save lives. I for one am happy we are moving to electric vehicles, but we will face another set of problems dealing with lithium. We also would not be having this conversation if it were not the petrolium industry. My point is this is a human event, with real lives at stake (my brother being one of them, who managed to escape to Edmonton). Let's leave 'karma' out of this, and move forward to make our world better.
forgetsusername 11y ago
>welcome to global warming. Maybe people wouldn't doubt climate change if every single negative thing that happens in nature wasn't attributed to it. Massive burns aren't exactly a new phenomenon. >wait a sec... Alberta? Fort McMurray!? I don't believe in karma, but I could change my mind. Karma will get you too. Maybe post here when it does so we can say you deserved it.
- blondie9x 11y ago
  It's the overall aggregate trend that's concerning and in line with climatic models from 80s. We are seeing temperatures spike year over year, droughts intensify, floods worsen, storms strengthening, sea levels rising, and species extinction levels increasing.
worldvoyageur 11y ago

blondie9x 11y ago

Seeing these photos, watching the videos, you really start to understand how terrible climate change has become and still how much worse it will get if we don't transition faster. All these natural disasters are really starting to effect us all. We need to act swiftly. Carbon energy must end.

mertd 11y ago
Why do you think this particular wildfire is due to climate change?
- mikegioia 11y ago
  The ground is warmer (and therefore drier) now in May, and this is especially so in the Boreal Forest of Canada where temps. have been rising much faster than they have in the mid latitudes. This year the fire season started very early, and temperatures in the region have been at record levels for days, with some areas reaching above 30 C. From http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2016/05/05/roaring-inferno-alberta-climate-change-looks-like/ http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2016/05/05/roaring-infe... I think this has a lot to do with climate change. If the average temperatures are warmer and the air/ground is drier, it can increase the likelihood, frequency, and severity of wildfires. Colorado and California have been/will be going through the same thing.