Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, Canada burns!

I heard about the evacuations on TV. What a sad thing for all those people.
 

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.


You're right Don and another thing I heard on the news this morning is that there is 60% less moisture in the ground of Alberta than there should be because of lack of winter snow cover. Farmers have been worrying all winter about the coming crops.

The only bright side in this whole ugly mess is that so far, Canadians have donated $44,000,000.00 and are involved in many efforts to provide for the evacuees at this terrible time. And I think the federal government, as well as providing other supports, has pledged to match whatever Canadians give. It's like a great huge family pulling together for the branch that are in crisis.:love_heart:
 

I have been hearing about this on the news and saw some footage last night about the disaster. My heart goes out to all those affected by those and those poor souls who may be expecting the inevitable to hit them.
 
Something that does bother me in all of this is my governments failure to at least thank Russia for their offer of help (water bombers, etc) in the fighting of this fire. Apparently the offer was made last week and there has been no response and frankly, I think that is deplorable. I realize that Stephen Harper's miserable obnoxious attitude about Russia set a tone, but I would have hoped that we would have gotten past that stupidity to allow at least common politeness to prevail. I'm seriously disappointed in our Safety Minister, Mr. Goodale in this regard and informed his office yesterday of that disappointment.
 
Something that does bother me in all of this is my governments failure to at least thank Russia for their offer of help (water bombers, etc) in the fighting of this fire. Apparently the offer was made last week and there has been no response and frankly, I think that is deplorable. I realize that Stephen Harper's miserable obnoxious attitude about Russia set a tone, but I would have hoped that we would have gotten past that stupidity to allow at least common politeness to prevail. I'm seriously disappointed in our Safety Minister, Mr. Goodale in this regard and informed his office yesterday of that disappointment.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more requests or fire fighters from the US/California where they normally see this stuff. They could call out the military to help/dig trench lines, clear areas to help prevent spread. The size is one thing but how fast it got out of control is another. Not seeing hour by hour coverage so details are thin here.
 


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