Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, Canada burns!

Shalimar

Shalimar

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Location
Vancouver Island Canada
Uncontained wildfire in Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, has forced the evacuation of 80,000 people. One fatality, a fifteen year old girl. Many animals are marooned, evacuees have asked anyone who can to help save

them. Prayers and positive thoughts for the displaced people and their animals. Surrounding communities are opening their hearts/homes/services to the evacuees. Such a heartbreaking situations. Dry winter and warm weather likely responsible for this tragedy.
 

I saw that on the news Shalimar, terrible disaster. My heart goes out to all the people and animals affected by this devastation. :(
 
Red Cross states that in an unprecedented show of support, Canadians have rallied together as of Friday morning to donate 30 million dollars toward this disaster. Vive les Canadiens generoux. Tu es formidable!
 
My heart goes out to those impacted by this disaster. Saw the story on the news tonight and the images are horrifying. I can only imagine how terrifying it must be for those folks in harm's way. Just was watching a PBS documentary called "The Big Burn" talking about the huge fire that destroyed an area of 3 million acres in Montana in 1910. Few things more terrifying than a fire out of control.
 
The Premier of the neighbouring province, British Columbia pointed out that in all likelihood, this will become the norm more and more.

For those who aren't familiar with British Columbia, it is referred to as a Coastal rainforest and in years past when I was a young person, the weather at this time of year is wet, rain and more rain interspersed with a sunny day periodically. Farmers in the Fraser Valley would be waiting in some areas still for their fields to be dry enough to get the heavy equipment on them. To show you how it's changed, my mom has been mowing her lawn since a month ago (unheard of previously) and she's already starting to water her hedge cedars because they are too dry. And Pemberton (which is in a valley north of Whistler) has already had it's first 30 degree day. Ten years ago, the snow would have been just in the middle of a melt yet at that time.

And maybe Shalimar you remember if it was two years ago that the city of Kelowna was threatened by massive fires. My friend was living there at the time and I remember watching the news to see if her neighbourhood was going to burn. And either last year or the year before, huge fires south of the border, had Calgary living in a smokey haze for weeks.

I feel so bad for all the folks who've lost everything. First their jobs and now this......and who wants to rebuild your destroyed house in a community where the jobs are drying up?
 
Yes I remember Debby. Where I live, on southern Vancouver Island, the winters are still wet, the summers remain fairly temperate. We are blessed with alternate sources of water should one begin to fail. We are fortunate so far. Our growing season has lengthened. My heart goes out to those tragically affected by climate change.
 
I've never been North of Edmonton, but the vegetation in the Canadian forests seems to be primarily Evergreens. If those trees are not receiving sufficient water, they become almost like standing cans of gasoline. A lightning strike, etc., can trigger a massive forest fire in regions with a high density of Evergreens. If such an area is suffering any extended periods of drought, it is at high risk for a major fire.
 
Best wishes for all involved. Bush fires are something Australians can fully understand and empathise with...........it's Autumn here and we have started backburning in preparation for next summer. The smoke is so thick today Sydney has issued a health alert.
 
Saw that on the news as well. Stunning. They said it's the same acreage as some big cities like NYC. Heard in some areas the only roads in or out are surrounded by fire?

Best Wishes to all involved.
 
I've been watching this on tv. So tragic. And they just said on the radio the area of the fire may double in the next 24 hours.
 
I've been following this and really feel for those poor people and for pets. Have read that some good samaritans have rescued many animals left behind. I guess some people had no idea that it would be a while before they could go back. Amazing that some places burned and yet some others close by were untouched.
 
We are well familiar with this situation over here. My thoughts are with the Canadians in the path of out of control fires.

Sydney is cloaked in smoke today but it is from many controlled burns that must happen before the heat of Summer.
 
Besides the damage to nature & property just being near one of those fires(even 10 miles down wind) you can wind up breathing the crap from them. I lived in an area like. We had a few years of drought and there were many fires. At night in particular the wind tended to change direction and you smelled them.

I don't think this is just dry pine needles either, a lot of the big fires wind up being arson and not just lighting strikes or carelessness.
 
Bobw235 said:
My heart goes out to those impacted by this disaster. Saw the story on the news tonight and the images are horrifying. I can only imagine how terrifying it must be for those folks in harm's way. Just was watching a PBS documentary called "The Big Burn" talking about the huge fire that destroyed an area of 3 million acres in Montana in 1910. Few things more terrifying than a fire out of control.
Click to expand...

I saw that, too. Over-management was the cause. I live in California, a state that has numerous wildfires every year. The forestry service has learned when to leave the spontaneous fires alone, but we still get some big ones. Many the result of people's carelessness.
 
What a terrible disaster. I can't begin to imagine what this does to people's lives. Canadians don't deserve this. My sympathies to all.
Fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and the occasional asteroid. The universe does not care about us one whit.
All the more reason for us to care for each other.
 
Is this the effect of global warming?
Emissions trading schemes often rely on tree plantations for carbon credits.
Makes you realise those schemes could be a house of cards and a good old fashioned carbon tax may do the job better.
 
It is one of the consequences that we could be experiencing more frequently as average global average temperatures keep rising. The trouble with averages is that they are a mean and say nothing about the extremes above and below the mean.
 
Some of the forest activities in the US includes fire burns to clear areas. I would expect Canada to do the same when they got the proper situations.

I have driven through some preventative fire burns and had no problems. If they do get too big the roads will be shut down till things are better. They do need to be controlled.

One that I remember that started as controlled burn did get out of control. I may be wrong but believe it became a monster that burned a large area of the US north west lands some years back. As I remember it burned in Idaho, Montana, and places like Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It really got out of control. Which is not the intent of controlled burns. And I believe that in some areas of the US forest the natural fires will also be allowed to burn until they go out or are considered to threat to properties or lives.

Sure hope Canada does get the better of this fire soon.
 

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