“It was a miracle we got the entire population out safely”, Rachel Notley told reporters on a visit to the site. “The most hard are the ones we haven’t been to yet which will be down south of Fort McMurray where the fire actually went across the plants”, Williams said.
Advertisement
Even with all of the personal loss, almost 90 percent of the city is still standing, including the downtown district.
Carr said in the Commons that the production of 1.5 million barrels per day has been affected by the fire, although it was not having an impact on oil prices or supply due the current North American oil glut. If that had not been successful, he said, downtown would have been lost.
A huge wildfire in the province of Alberta continues growing and it could spread into neighboring province, Saskatchewan according to Canadian officials.
Much of Fort McMurray was burned away in the fire, and, although it is now spreading north, officials are still concerned about safety in the forested urban service area – concerns that may not subside for weeks, or months, without the help of “a significant rain event”.
He says that between 40 and 50 per cent of Fort McMurray could have been destroyed if firefighters hadn’t been able to hold back the flames at key points. But the suburbs, where some people got just a half hour’s notice to evacuate a week ago, were singed. Along with equipment, they’ve volunteered to truck donations to Northern Alberta.
On Monday, he was allowed back in to pick up his dogs as well as other dogs that belonged to friends.
There still is no timeline for any of the 80,000 evacuated residents to be allowed back into their homes, but the Alberta government has begun preliminary planning, though it stresses fighting the fire is still the first priority. “We’ve heard many are still standing, but of course, they may have suffered smoke damage and who knows what else”, Kaiser said.
New footage from the area shows the devastation and authorities have said that the neighbourhoods of Beacon Hill and Abasand, on the west side of Highway 63, sustained the most extensive damage. Alberta’s government said it will soon offer debit cards pre-loaded with $1,250 to adult evacuees.
It has nearly been a week since a wildfire, fuelled by strong winds, overwhelmed crews last Tuesday afternoon, cutting the main road through Fort McMurray and sending its 80,000 inhabitants fleeing north and south.
“You got people here getting stressed out”.
Inside Fort McMurray, burnt out homes and cars stretch for blocks. There’s still an ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire.
Jihad Moghrabi, a spokesman for Lac La Biche County, said that 4,400 evacuees have come through The Bold Center, a sports facility in town.
“This disaster is surreal”, he said. “You can’t believe it”.
Morrison said the fire has not reached the Suncor or Syncrude oil sands facilities north of Fort McMurray and that the mines north are not under threat. Do our friends have their house? “You can see the sun trying to break through, but precipitation could be minimal today”, Wisker said.
When he later saw video from the neighborhood he last saw burning, he was not surprised by the result.
Advertisement
“Right now we are being the partner that the province, the municipality, and Albertans need for Ottawa to be”, he said.
