Fort McMurray burning
 

I lived in Fort McMurray working in the oil sands plants for around 11 years the devastating wild fire has consumed around a 1/3 of the city in the last two days. 88,000 people have been displaced with no end in site and worse yet no rain either. There are bumper to bumper of stranded desperate people along the 250Km stretch of the only Hwy out is unmanageable there out of fuel and with out food or water for two days. I've never seen a disaster of this magnitude in my life first hand I know lots of you here have had your fair share of them. A good friend of mine was flew out of Mcmurray yesterday he said it's like a war zone there entire subdivisions are gone rubble and ash and vehicle skeletons are all that's left. :pray2:

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/trending...tage-1.3567316

Here's a link to some first hand footage

Just came home from dropping off a few bags of cloths and some gift cards. This is likely the biggest and costliest disaster in Canadian history early estimates are 2-4 billion in damage. We have two hotels filled with evacuated families and more coming in my home town pretty surreal scene. Families hutlled together going through the donation tables looking for a change of clothes and the most basic of needs. The outpouring support there receiving is truly moving.

There is equally large fire eating acreages and farms in northern British Columbia my cousin and her family got evacuated an hour ago from there farm. They'll most likely losse it all shortly. All this and it's not even fire season here.

Man, that's amazing and tragic. We're just starting to dry out in Oregon - it's unbelievable that this is happening to you guys farther north. I hope the US is sending some fire fighting help your way.

Today started ok I sounds like my cousins place survived the fire it burnt complety around her place but never crossed the field. But now the city of Fort StJohn BC might be in its path.

As for Fort Mac it's a nightmare that's going to have major impacts on oil out put and the price of fuel that's already going up.


I'm have no doubt the good O'l USA has been giving us there support there's Mexican fire fighters I'm not sure about the Russians but they formally offered there assistance.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36224767. :sad::sad:

It's horrible, to be sure. And yes, the cost of gas is going up rapidly, but the funny thing is that according to CNN and several other news sources, the oil producing areas are not in danger and have not been impacted. Go figure.... :head:

The fire has almost doubled to 2000 square km and now at the southern edge of Suncor and easy to saskatchawan. I was at Suncor for most of my time up there it is there open pit mine and Orr processing plants on the east side of the athabasca River that the fire is approaching. The main plant is on the west side they are all mostly safe due to the fact that massive tracts of land are cleared all around them to mine or have been mined.

My friend at syncrude got evacuated today after assisting shutting in operations. The plants have all either shut in completely or at extreme reduced rates a change in wind direction can make it impossible to flee at all. Most of the people the run or maintain them have been evacuated with there family's. The other issue is fuel food etc this is a remote city the fire is just to big to get much through. With no real rain in site and lots of wind the smoke is getting to thick in the southern plants to safely see and breath. 1,000,000 + barrels of oil per day not being produced.

Glad to hear your family is safe, saw pictures the other day, looked like the end of the world.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/...tion-1.2894139

Sad

Things are slowly getting a little better up here the main fire is further east of the city still 230,000 hectares but going away. Clean up crews are cleaning up the burnt sections of the city and getting the utilities straightend out and turned on. Some of my friends and connections have flown back up to Restart or ramp up a few of the plants to full production. Like all fires weird things happen the place I lived in for two years in heart of the hardest hit area is standing alone untouched . Now it looks like a big white F@&k YOU fire among absolut ruins. Another place I lived in is gone as you can see it in the photo attached (yep that's it second from the right). Great story's everywhere of the effort to help people in need and just keeping them occupied. http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blo...pay-for-things
Proud of my country province and town for what everyone has done

Scook I was wrong or government turned down all the international aid that was offered. I'm guessing because the fire hit the city so quickly and passed through we had enough to manage.