canadian wildfire may 2016

[rob love]

Here as well Harry. We have a 90 year old forest nearby which is primarily Jack Pine planted in the 1920s and perhaps some in the 1940s. At this point many of the trees are starting to go over, and combined with a floor of pine needles and firebreaks that are no longer maintained and now grown over, it is not a matter of "might" but "when".

There are a good number of houses just across the road from the forest, including a lot of the new builds. Natural resources has now allowed cutting of fuelwood for the first 100 yards into that forest to make some level of fireguard, but as can be seen in the video, the safety of 100 yards may be an illusion.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Hmmm? Ninety year old Jack Pines - there's a city of log houses standing on the stump.

In case people are wondering why the military has not been mobilized, the hierarchy of mutual aid is city or rural municipality first, then the region, the province itself, and any neighbouring provinces who might be able to help.

The last line of defence is the federal govt after the lower levels have exhausted their resources. The provincial Attorney General has to make an official request to his opposite in federal government before any soldier can turn a wheel to help out. Even so, the meter starts running whenever a province asks. And troops don't come for free.

[cletrac (RIP)]

This is quite the picture!

[Peter Duggan]

Guys,

Here are some of the folks that are on the front line of what will turn out to be the largest natural disaster in Canadian history.

The people of Ft McMurray are in the middle of horrible battle with mother nature. Hopefully the physical fight will be soon over. The subsequent trauma and psychological struggle will be just as challenging. The rebuilding process will take years.

The only positive aspect to this disaster is the overwhelming positive support from the rest of the country. Keep it up, they deserve it.

Peter

2016-05-07 09.54.07.jpg

[maple_leaf_eh]

http://esrica-psvt.maps.arcgis.com/a...3aa7681067db4d

My old supervisor works for ESRI and he posted this link on Facebook. The various feeds show all sorts of information, and the Fort Mc' fire is one of them. Open and close the layers to see more information.

[motto (RIP)]

There is a surreal feeling about the videos that is hard to describe. No sense of urgency, no water bombers, no talk of containment lines or assets committed. Even the fire seemed to be taking it easy. The wind wasn't blowing a gale and most of the houses look to be quite defensible, simply a matter of putting out spot fires and watching out for ember attack.
I understand that there was a compulsory evacuation ordered but wonder at the necessity of that if some preparation had been carried out. It was like as though the fire was completely unforeseen and no preparations made.
We live in a fire prone area and have water tanks, fire pump and generator with the idea in mind of staying and fighting and what I saw at Fort Mc seemed quite strange.
I see that there has been some lively debate over the non use of water bombers in the Canadian parliament with mention of the Martin Mars and C-130 aircraft. They alone probably would have decided the issue, easily so in the days prior to the town being ravaged.
There must be more to the story.

David

[rob love]

Don't take your news from a squirrel, they have a pretty small area of responsibility.

Much like the starving Ethiopian kid that you would constantly see photos of the same kid, when the media made it sound like there were millions more just like him, the media will center on the worst. Seems like I have seen the same burned out truck in front of the same burned out neighborhood a number of times. But I don't doubt for a second that this was the right choice.

Evacuate or don't evacuate? I haven't heard of anyone losing their lives at this point, so the evacuate choice seemed to be the right choice. Some neighborhoods did burn, the escape routes were hit and miss, and 90,000 people command a lot of resources so with no source of re-supply, a contaminated water system, a compromised power grid, at least there are about 85,000 less mouths to worry about.

I worked the BC forest fire of 2003, and fire is an unpredictable, goofy thing. We worked a certain area of responsibility, and everything would seem good, we would be proactively working our area to contain any spots that we could find, then suddenly a tree would roman candle out of nowhere. Now you were no longer proactive, but reactive. Or in army speak, we had lost the initiative.

Between weather, wind, and just plain bad luck, fighting these things is tough, and often you are trying to contain the damage until mother nature can take over. Even then, it gets underground into the root system, and just waits to come up again at any time.

[jack neville]

Originally Posted by motto

There is a surreal feeling about the videos that is hard to describe. No sense of urgency, no water bombers, no talk of containment lines or assets committed. Even the fire seemed to be taking it easy. The wind wasn't blowing a gale and most of the houses look to be quite defensible, simply a matter of putting out spot fires and watching out for ember attack.
I understand that there was a compulsory evacuation ordered but wonder at the necessity of that if some preparation had been carried out. It was like as though the fire was completely unforeseen and no preparations made.
We live in a fire prone area and have water tanks, fire pump and generator with the idea in mind of staying and fighting and what I saw at Fort Mc seemed quite strange.
I see that there has been some lively debate over the non use of water bombers in the Canadian parliament with mention of the Martin Mars and C-130 aircraft. They alone probably would have decided the issue, easily so in the days prior to the town being ravaged.
There must be more to the story.

David

Maybe it's the difference between Australian bush and the rest of the fire prone world Dave but I know what you mean.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by motto

It was like as though the fire was completely unforeseen and no preparations made. We live in a fire prone area and have water tanks, fire pump and generator with the idea in mind of staying and fighting and what I saw at Fort Mc seemed quite strange.

David, I think we're seeing what happens under forced evacuation policy. If you live under that regime, whether it be in Canada or Australia, there's no point preparing for bushfires. This point was eloquently made by former AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty in the 2011 report into Perth Hills bushfires, where residents were evacuated and no lives were lost, but many homes were. The final report said:

The Special Inquiry does not dispute the priority given to protecting life, however, it is concerned that the process of widespread evacuation may be at odds with the focus on educating people about risks and empowering individuals and communities to exercise choice and take responsibility, as set out in the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. The Strategy has an explicit focus on building disaster resilient communities, noting that in these communities:

People understand the risks that may affect them and others in the community. They understand the risks assessed around Australia, particularly those in their local area. They have comprehensive local information about hazards and risks, including who is exposed and who is most vulnerable. They take action to prepare for disasters and are adaptive and flexible to respond appropriately during emergencies.

The National Strategy for Disaster Resilience further defines a disaster resilient community as one where people have taken steps to anticipate disasters and to protect themselves.

The Special Inquiry spoke with residents who questioned the rationale for preparing their own bushfire plan setting out what they will do during a fire event if it is likely they will be evacuated anyway. The Special Inquiry was concerned that the widespread use of evacuation as a strategy to protect life has the potential to disempower communities, rather than building resilience. Residents could choose not to engage in community level preparations, not consider what action they would take during a bushfire, or not take adequate steps to protect their properties, if they believe the default response to an emergency is to evacuate. (Mick Keelty, ‘A Shared Responsibility: The Report of the Perth Hills Bushfire February 2011 Review’ p 42).