All of Fort McMurray ordered to flee wildfire in the largest fire evacuation in Alberta's history

[suffragette]

Last edited Wed May 4, 2016, 01:26 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Edmonton Journal

Fort McMurray’s more than 80,000 residents have been ordered to flee the oilsands city after a massive wildfire, fuelled by soaring temperatures and tinder-dry forest, broached the city limits.

At 6:20 p.m., a mandatory evacuation order was issued for the entire city, with residents advised to head north to Noralta Lodge and wait for further instructions. Word came down later that Noralta Lodge was full and evacuees were being sent further north to other work camps.

The wildfire burning in the city limits has forced the largest fire evacuation in Alberta’s history. It’s expected to get worse Wednesday, when winds are forecast to switch direction and increase in intensity, at speeds of 25 to 50 kilometres per hour.

Read more: http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-pushed-back-even-as-temperatures-climb

---

Edited to add video

https://m.

[StarTrombone]

1. In the 2011 Census, Fort McMurray had a population of 61,374

The latest is 125,032

It's a big oilsands area

I guess any fire evacuation would be the largest in history

[suffragette]

2. Looks like a bad situation

https://weather.com/news/news/fort-mcmurray-alberta-wildfire

“The humidity levels are going to be decreased quicker because the ambient temperature is hotter, so that means the fire will be able to go more ferociously and quicker than in days previously,” said local fire chief Darby Allen.

"As the fire grows in size, the complexity in fighting it grows,” he added.

The temperature reached 90 degrees at Fort McMurray on Tuesday with a very low relative humidity and gusty Southwest winds, said weather.com meteorologist Tom Moore. The average high temperature for this location is in the upper 50s for early May.

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. 90 degrees in Canada - SMH - n/t

[laundry_queen]

12. Not just "Canada"

Fort Mac is pretty far north even as far as Canadian cities go. I'm in Alberta and records have been falling all over the province this week. In one town I used to live in that is even further north than Fort McMurray, they smashed their old record of 74...their new record is 87. That's crazy. 24 temperature records fell today in Alberta. Temps this hot are not that unusual in, say, southern Ontario in May, but they are very rare in Northern Alberta in early May.

[suffragette]

21. We've had some high spikes in temperature in Seattle this April, too.

Very rare for spring.

Fortunately, we've had rain follow that.

Sounds very dry up there for you and the winds add to the problem.

[grasswire]

51. O Canada.

Can't imagine those temps. My grandparents homesteaded on the prairie of Saskatchewan in the early 1900s. I guarantee it was nothing then like you're getting now!

[suffragette]

4. News says largest in Alberta's history, so that would be history for province,

Not just town.

[u4ic]

14. That census is for

the municipality of Wood Buffalo. That includes, but is not limited to Fort McMurray. Fort McKay, Fort Chipewyan and Anzac, plus First Nations communities.

Fort McMurray itself is around 80,000. It has a lot of people who drive/ fly in to work for periods of time, and then leave for their permanent residence elsewhere. Lots from other areas of AB, the Maritimes and Newfoundland plus BC. There used to be a lot of temporary foreign workers, but not sure since the oil prices tanked.

[laundry_queen]

30. Yes. My friend's dad works there

Lives in the 'burbs of Edmonton, works in Fort Mac. My friend texted my last night that his apartment in Fort Mac burnt down. Lots of people like that where I live. My brother, who is an engineer, helped build some of the neighborhoods in Fort Mac and used to go in and work there for a few weeks at a time, but lived in Edmonton. It's very common. (it's why people were so pissed about the employment insurance exceptions)

[houston16revival]

3. The oil sands must be flammable

That will be a mess

Alberta has been pro growth, making money from tar sands, this will
expose some of that risk

[suffragette]

6. Yeah, aren't there toxic tailing ponds around there?

Seems that would add even more hazard to bad situation.

[elmac]

19. Not unlike the 1871 fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin

only then it was the massive logging in the area and piles of wood waste left behind + dry hot weather. Destroyed the whole city and much of the countryside, leaving 2500 dead.

[u4ic]

28. Almost half of Slave Lake, AB was destroyed a few years ago

by another massive wildfire: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fire-destroys-40-of-slave-lake-1.981352

[2naSalit]

5. I am truly concerned for the people being evacuated

but this was just a matter of time that the tar sands would be in the line of raging wildfires. It is disaster of epic proportion, especially when the open pits of flammables catch. There is yet another tragedy in this as well, this area abuts and encroaches on the Wood Bison Refuge where the vast majority of the Wood Bison reside, they were already at risk with their habitat being dredged up for tar sands oil, their water polluted as well, now the fires will rage through the preserve and endanger them as well as all those people who are there being evacuated.

What a horrible mess. I picture any of the oil facilities going up to be much like an oil refinery or whatever facility going up in flames like we saw in Iraq when those were getting torched during the war.

[suffragette]

7. Me, too. Between the open toxic pits and impact of climate change on conditions,

it's very dangerous.

They have already been having fires there and this year looks to be even worse than last.

Wasn't aware of the Wood Bison Refuge.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2675281/western-canada-wildfires-this-year-could-be-worse-than-last-say-experts/

Flannigan said conditions have been so dry some fires have burned two metres into the ground, forcing firefighters to dig out the fires or flood the ground with water.

“The wildfire season is off to a very active start. Is the rest of the season going to be like this? It’s hard to tell,” he said. “But if you believe the seasonal forecasts and the fact that El Nino is still kicking around, odds are we are going to have a very active fire season.”

Last year’s season was historically devastating: 7,068 wildfires burned roughly four million hectares of land, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The overwhelming fires also saw crews from Australia and the U.S. come to help their Canadian counterparts.

Judith Kulig, professor in the faculty of health sciences at the University of Lethbridge, said the effects of climate change are also driving the increase in wildfires, and it’s not going to get better in the future.

“The whole aspect of climate change and global warming, which is then interrelated things such as insect infestation, so pine beetle increases because it’s not a cold enough winter,” she said. “The trees are infested and drier and more prone to fire.

[2naSalit]

8. Same problem

with beetles, bark rust and tinder dry conditions here in the northern Rockies... just a matter of time.

[suffragette]

10. Same problem here in Cascades.

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/warming_more.htm
In northeastern Washington forests, pine bark beetles are rapidly devastating large tracts of forests. In British Columbia, Canada, more trees have been lost due to beetle infestation than to wildfires or logging, in an area three times the size of Maryland. Surveys show the beetle has infested 21 million acres and killed 411 million cubic feet of trees — double the annual harvest by all the loggers in Canada. In seven years or sooner, the Canadian Forest Service predicts that number will nearly triple. This loss of lodge pole pines will reshape the future of the forest and the communities it supports.


We had better rain and snow this winter than last, but temperatures for April set all time records and when they rise they bounce up more quickly and much higher than usual.

[2naSalit]

11. In this area

the lodgepoles are replacing the fir and spruce, not a good thing. It means that all upper elevations are becoming micro-climate islands with no connectivity. It's also why there's so much opposition to the potential delisting of grizzlies here. Our entire population, while slowly increasing is still threatened by loss of food and a very tiny gene pool - like all 700 derived from a total of four sows for the whole region.

ETA: Hey! I worked for the ECY in WA fora four month contract many years ago!

[suffragette]

15. Thank you for the explanation of the impact from this.

Our environment and life is so interconnected. Ignoring or severing those connections leads to disastrous results.

Coho salmon have been hit hard up here, so much so there has been talk of canceling the season.
Last year we had the Pacific 'blob' of hotter than usual water offshore at the same time as what was described as an unusually persistent high ridge which kept the heat up high.

[2naSalit]

17. Yes

I was watching that coverage of the "blob"... scary stuff!

Out here our salmon have been in trouble since they built all those dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. We've already seen several species go extinct... the lack of this keystone species - salmon (all of them) has given our forests the equivalent of AIDS by starving them of the ocean derived nutrients that the salmon bring to the farthest inland spawning grounds in the US. The entire ecosystem requires these nutrients (phosphates and nitrates), they don't get here any other way than by the return of the anadramous fish populations. After two thirds of a century, the damage is done... and the dams still prevent the natural life cycle to this day.

With the forests unable to ward off pests and disease due to starvation, it's getting pretty obvious to those of us who pay attention to this stuff.

And these dams were put there to fuel the aluminum industry for the WWII war machine, they really don't provide much power to the public, and the aluminum corps like Kaizer are long gone. I never thought I would see this in my lifetime but here we are. We decided, or someone did, to sacrifice our future a long time ago in many cases.

[suffragette]

20. Good point about how salmon enrich the environment as well as how they depend on it.

Salmon are part of our soul here.

Here's an image I found last year that was used in many news stories about El Niño, but also provides a stunning picture of the 'Blob.'

This is a NOAA photo that compares the 90s El Niño with the 2015 (the streak) and shows the additional warm 'Blob' to the north - named that by University of Washington scientists.

?w=650

[2naSalit]

24. Wow!

That's pretty telling. Looks like there's a hot spot over by Japan too. I'll have to look around NOAA for that and see if there's an image of the eastern Pacific.

Yikes. Thanks for showing me that, it's the most comprehensive image I've seen so far.

[suffragette]

26. Yes, there was a hot spot by Japan, too.

Art from Ark (who lives in Japan) noted the higher water temps there in a thread last year about El Niño.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7097315

That's around when I found that picture and posted back to him with that.

It shows the heat with such clarity.

[u4ic]

13. The fire would have to travel about 60 km north of where it is now

to reach the tailing ponds. The thought of it reaching that far is terrifying but it's still got a ways to go. The winds tend to come from the west.

Also, if you're referring to Wood Bison National Park, it's about 400-450 km north of the city, and extends up into the Northwest Territories. Ft McMurray is in the municipality of Wood Buffalo, but it's not in the park.

The forest is extremely dense up there, Ft McMurray is very isolated. I've seen the remnants of another horrible wildfire there some years ago, it had no problem jumping the highway and continuing on through. The fact that it jumped the Athabasca River shows the strength of it.

With the downturn, lots of people struggling there and then these wildfires. I have no love for the tar sands, but like the floods in Stephen Harper's riding a few years ago, it's a sign for some areas of the province to recognize climate change. Unfortunately it often takes a disaster for people to wake up to it. Hopefully with an NDP government the push for greener options will actually come to pass. If the Conservatives or gawd forbid the Wildrose were in, nothing would be done in that respect.

I lived there once upon a time, for the record. I know the area quite well.

I hope all stay safe and there are no casualties.

[2naSalit]

25. Good info

thanks for explaining that, local knowledge is crucial in remote places like that. I mentioned the Wood Bison National Park because I knew it was up there somewhere not too far away from the tar sands projects because I saw aerial photos of, I guess the northern end of the tar sands and I saw bison on one side of a fence and torn up land on the other.

At any rate, this is horrible and if there is no way to stop the fires, they mat well travel into the oil fields, and that would be horrific, as if this isn't already.

[u4ic]

16. The apocalyptic scene driving out of Ft McMurray:

There is only one highway in and out, it's a very isolated area.

Photo: @andyhurleys on Twitter

[suffragette]

18. That is terrifying.

And it sounds like the weather forecast is for more heat and wind.

I hope everyone makes it out safely.

[u4ic]

22. It is

Also considering they have to drive into the fire before they can get out. The fire is at the south end of the city, and that's the way to safety. There is a highway going north, but not far; to the tar sands projects. After that, it's just the projects and dense bush.

The El Nino brought a very mild and dry winter to AB. Last year was horrible for wildfires in BC, AB and Saskatchewan, but this year might be worse with the lack of winter and precipitation.

[suffragette]

23. Thank you for the specific local info for that area of Alberta.

I'm more familiar with BC, since it's not far from Seattle and I lived up in Bellingham for awhile, so I hopped across the border often.

Last year was horrible down here, too. I've been hoping that with the decrease of the 'Blob' hearing up the Pacific and with the better winter rains we had that this year would be better. Still hoping for that, but we broke all time heat records for April and, as I noted up thread, when it's been hearing up, the temps are spiking high rather than any gradual increase. Worries me for this summer.

[u4ic]

27. I'm living not far from you now

and yes, we were affected by the blob as well last summer. I haven't heard anything this year, is it still around?

We also had the warmest April on record, not surprisingly. Last year, June looked like August - bone dry. With sustained heat so early on, I would imagine it will be the same this year.

[suffragette]

34. It has dissipated, but scientists are indicating it will likely return

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/oceanographer-pacific-ocean-blob-is-gone-but-will-return

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/01/pacific-blob-breaking-up-but-that-may-not-be-good-news.html

And the damage it has done will last for awhile. The toxic algae blooms after the food chain badly, from sardines to whales.

At least it snowed this winter in the mountains so there's a better snow pack. And we had good rain this winter so that helps, too.

Hoping the summer is better, but not liking that we already started to have summertime high temps this April.

[suffragette]

49. Damn. Looks like BC has so many fires, they couldn't send help to Alberta

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-fire-season-flares-up-early-thanks-to-unseasonably-warm-dry-weather-expert

VANCOUVER — British Columbia has turned down a request for help from Alberta to send firefighters to help battle the Fort McMurray blaze, as the province struggles with an early start to this year’s wildfire season.

Ryan Turcot, an information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said Alberta made a request for help Tuesday through the national Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Requests go to all provinces and territories, so that those jurisdictions experiencing lower levels of activity can lend resources if available.

But B.C. is currently experiencing high levels of fire activity, especially in the Peace River Region, where more than 50 fires are burning and five evacuation alerts are in place. “Our personnel are currently fully engaged across the province,” said Turcot, in an email Wednesday morning.

~~~
Since April 1, 203 fires have consumed more than 230 square kilometres of land in B.C. Of the 85 fires burning in the province, 57 are in the Prince George fire centre with the vast majority in the Peace Region. Eight new fires broke out Tuesday.



Very bad news.

[PersonNumber503602]

44. Fires on both side of the only road out, aye?

That must frightening.

A friend of mine was working out in that area at the camp a little north. He said he hopes it goes north and burns down the entire camp and mining site. Apparently he's not a fan of the place and says it's basically hell on earth.

[nitpicker]

29. Link to The Globe and Mail story

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/fort-mcmurray-alta-residents-ordered-out-as-wildfire-threatens-city/article29839263/

(snip)
As fire burned through suburbs toward downtown Tuesday afternoon, a wall of flames sprouted up along the only highway out of Fort McMurray. Within a few hours, the whole city was ordered to evacuate.

The fire had been burning southwest of Fort McMurray since Sunday, but a sudden shift in winds around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday led to a dramatic turn of events as the fire jumped over rivers and roads, tearing into the northern Alberta city. Residents reported hearing the popping noises of fuel tanks rupturing as they drove on a jammed Highway 63 for safety.
(snip)

Emergency officials confirmed late Tuesday that whole neighbourhoods of Fort McMurray have been destroyed. Fire chief Darby Allen said they did not have an estimate of the number of homes destroyed, but said the fire is burning in several areas in the city’s south end. There have been no reports of serious injuries.
(snip)

On Tuesday morning, the fire had covered nearly 27 square kilometres outside of the city, but as the flames surged toward Fort McMurray, the 100 firefighters battling the flames had to pull back. To fight back the flames, nine air tankers and more than a dozen helicopters dropped long streams of water and fire retardant as the fires spread.
(snip)

[suffragette]

35. Thanks for the update.

The combo of high temperatures, strong shifting winds and tinder dry trees is a bad one and it looks like today conditions will be no better.

[fred v]

31. Will this cripple or impede further Tarsands development?

If so, then maybe some good might come out of it.

[suffragette]

36. Good question.

It is having some impact now, not sure if this will be temporary though.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-wildfire-fortmcmurray-idUSKCN0XU2D8

A massive wildfire in the western Canadian city of Fort McMurray that forced the evacuation of 88,000 residents has resisted efforts to bring it under control, officials said on Wednesday, with more hot, dry winds forecast for later in the day.

Fuel shortages and heavy traffic snarled the departure of residents from Fort McMurray, located in the northeastern part of the province of Alberta in the heart of Canada's oil sands region, as the fire destroyed much of one neighborhood and badly damaged others.

While major oil sands facilities were not in the fire's path, the blaze disrupted some operations. Royal Dutch Shell PLC said one of its oil sands mines was closed and another was in the process of being shut down. Suncor Energy Inc, whose oil sands operations are closest to the city, said it was reducing crude production.

Firefighters said weather conditions made it difficult to bring the fire under control.

[laundry_queen]

46. It's temporary

One of the reasons they have slowed everything is because their employees were evacuating and there aren't enough people to work all the shifts. They are currently housing evacuees in their camps instead and taking care of them, hence the shutdown.

[suffragette]

47. Thanks. That makes sense. Hope everyone stays out of harm's way.

[bemildred]

32. So I understand it takes a lot of water to mine the oil sands and oil shale. Lots. nt

[suffragette]

37. Lots and a new study shows the main source there is prone to drought

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/oilsands-water-use-1.3237239

The river that provides water to the oilsands industry is much more prone to multi-year droughts than modern records show, suggesting that the industry's current level of water use may not be sustainable, a new study suggests.

The oilsands industry needs 3.1 barrels of fresh water to produce a barrel of crude oil from oilsands mining, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

That water for oilsands mining comes mainly from northern Alberta's Athabasca River, and oilsands account for 72 per cent of estimated water use from the river.

~~~

The study also confirmed that overall flows in the Athabasca River are declining. That's something that was already known and thought to be mainly because of the melting and shrinking of glaciers.

[bemildred]

38. How about that? nt

[Cal Carpenter]

33. Fucking fire and brimstone

[suffragette]

40. Very much so. I added a video to the OP showing the evacuation

Harrowing conditions.

[GliderGuider]

39. Right now isn't a good time for discussions of climate change

I hope their good fortune with the evacuation holds (no injuries beyond sprained ankles so far), and I wish courage to all the firefighters who are having to deal with this monster.

But I'd like to note the agonizing irony of seeing one of the world's main oil-sands hub cities being destroyed by a climate-amplified wildfire. When all is said and done though, this has to serve as a wake-up call for what our heedless use of fossil fuels has done to our planet.

I've always said that only once the impact of climate change hits us directly will we finally begin to change our behavior. Well, here is the impact. Let's see what happens.

[suffragette]

41. I hope they will stay safe as well. Completely agree about need to change

Our behavior and how this should be a wake up call.

Found an article that explains it well.

Really worth a full read, but here is a snippet:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/destructive-wildfire-near-canada-s-oil-sands-may-have-been-fueled-by-global-warming/

An unusually intense May wildfire roared into Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in province history. The flames rode the back of hot, windy weather that will continue through Wednesday and could pick up again this weekend.
The wildfire is the latest in a lengthening lineage of early wildfires in the northern reaches of the globe that are indicative of a changing climate. As the planet continues to warm, these types of fires will likely only become more common and intense as spring snowpack disappears and temperatures warm.
“This (fire) is consistent with what we expect from human-caused climate change affecting our fire regime,” Mike Flannigan, a wildfire researcher at the University of Alberta, said.
~~~
Boreal forests are burning at a rate unprecedented in the last 10,000 years. A Climate Central analysis of Alaskan wildfires last year showed that the season is 40 percent longer than it was 65 years ago. Large wildfires there have also doubled over that time.


The article also notes that the increase in wildfires is turning some forests into global 'carbon polluters.' Yet another irony to add to what you've noted.

[GliderGuider]

42. Thanks for the article from SA/Climate Central

Straight to the heart of the matter.

[suffragette]

43. I lived in Southern California for awhile and this reminds me of Santa Ana fires there.

Similar hot conditions, strong shifting winds and tinder dry fuel.

That this is so far north of there and so early in the year really shows how strongly climate change is having an effect.

[fred v]

45. Slate's Eric Holthaus: This is Climate Change

Amazingly, as of Wednesday morning, there have been no serious injuries or deaths yet reported, and all fires within the city itself have been extinguished for now—though at great cost to some neighborhoods. The city is not in the clear yet, though, as fire conditions will again be extreme on Wednesday—with gusty winds, high temperatures, and low humidity. In a Tuesday evening press conference, officials warned that the worst of the fire was not yet over, so uncertainty still hangs over the city.

One thing that is certain is that this fire has a clear link to climate change. Canada’s northern forests have been burning more frequently over recent decades as temperatures there are rising at twice the rate of the global average. A 2013 analysis showed that the boreal forests of Alaska and northern Canada are now burning at a rate unseen in at least the past 10,000 years. The extreme weather of recent months is also closely linked with the ongoing record-setting El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean, which tends to bring a warmer and drier winter to this part of Canada. Last month, Canadian officials mentioned the possibility of “large fires” after over-winter snowpack was 60 to 85 percent below normal and drought conditions worsened.

This week, a strong atmospheric blocking pattern—a semi-stable extreme arrangement of the jet stream—reinforced an unseasonable heat wave and helped temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday in Fort McMurray, 40 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, eight degrees above the daily record high, 15 degrees warmer than Houston, and the same temperature as Miami. While fleeing, some evacuees had to turn on their air conditioners.

Full Article

[suffragette]

50. "Fire officials say it may already rank as one of the most destructive disasters

In Canadian history."


Powerful and saddening info in the article you posted.

At least, the role of climate change in these fires is finally being acknowledged.

The cost of ignoring it for far too long is high.

[KittyWampus]

48. Just saw footage on Facebook. Trees burning on either side of the road...

lots of expletives as the cars speed away from the fire on either side of them.

It looks like the wildfire has moved very quickly.

[suffragette]

52. The wind is blowing embers across rivers.

Hard to fight when it is jumping like that.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/albertas-highway-of-fire/article29863650/

Spotting occurs when sparks, embers or burning debris are blown by the wind and start new blazes, away from direct contact with the main fire.

The fire that jumped over the Athabasca River was a spot fire, Mr. Schmitte said.

~~~

Crowning, the other problem mentioned by Mr. Schmitte, occurs when the fire spreads from branch to branch through the tree tops.

With crown fires, the flames can sometimes travel faster than a person running on the ground, Mr. Burnett said.