He said dry conditions and heat across much of B.C. resembles the situation in Alberta communities such as Fort McMurray, where almost 90,000 residents have been ordered to leave their homes after a fire-storm descended on the oilsands city.
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The forest fire, said to be the largest in Alberta’s history, has forced some 80,000 residents to flee the city, while some operators of oil sands projects have halted production.
There were no reports of fatalities so far.
“We have trucks and trailers ready as well as our hands and hearts to help with fleeing animals”, she wrote on Facebook.
80% of Beacon Hill, a southern residential neighbourhood, has been destroyed by the fire. Thanks to the influx of investment from producers such as Shell and Exxon Mobil, thousands flocked to “Fort McMoney” as the city spent millions building heated bus shelters, schools, bridges and hockey arenas to accommodate its rapidly growing and affluent population. Big difference is destruction in Abasand, Waterways.
An average of 1,200 wildfires are reported in Alberta each year, and half of those fires are caused by humans, according to the National Fire Database. “There are certainly areas of the city that have not been burned, but this fire will look for them and it will find them and it will want to take them”, he told another briefing in Fort McMurray.
“I would say it’s been the worst day of my career”, Darby Allen, the regional fire chief for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, told CBC News.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government will provide all possible assistance to Alberta. Power said the ferocity and speed of the fire that chased them here caught her by surprise.
Day said in her Facebook post she was not joking about the wildfire. A wildfire has put the entire region of around 88,000 people under a mandatory evacuation order.
Oil prices briefly rose on concerns about reduced output from the Canadian oil sands before paring gains on Wednesday. The wildfire threat ranging from very high to extreme. “But with strong fire suppression, there has been a tremendous buildup of fuel”.
The Canadian Red Cross is one of the charities leading the charge and the Revelstoke organization is asking for donations of money, not physical items. Most oil sands projects are well north of the community, while the worst of the flames were on the city’s south side.
Goodale added, Fort McMurray residents need to know all of Canada is standing shoulder to shoulder with them. Drivers of heavy trucks hauling the bitumen-bearing sand could earn up to C$150,000 a year with overtime.
Mike Flanagan, a professor of wildland fires at the University of Alberta, says the fire’s proximity to the city, as well as data that shows there were no lightning strikes in the area, lead him to believe the cause of the fire was likely human.
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The Innovation Department is working to make sure the communication systems continue to function in the wake of several cell towers going down or being damaged.
