fort mcmurray?

[kend]

Anyone from that area?  Heap big fire, has to affect brothers, and halls.   The usual concern from all of us.  One thing that strikes me is how there is enough aid close that we who live further away don't even get asked at times.  Our turn will come.

[Greg Dent]

They have evacuated the entire city. Was on the radio today. There is a small town of 15000 people the town is gone.  80,000 in Fort Macmurry. 3000 homes and buildings destroyed already. They don't expect the rest of the town to survive this fire. People are evacuating south but the only hiway has been cut off due to the fire jumping the road.  The nearest gas station on that road is a 2 hour drive away and a lot of people have run out of gas. the government has ordered all gas stations to have their tanks emptied and some have taken fuel tankers to help those that are stranded.  No one has died yet from this which is a blessing. 

 

Last work I heard on our news in Canada is they don't expect much of the town to be left. This is the worst they have had. Over night tonight they are expecting 60 kph winds which will speed up the spread. Very hot in the 30 degrees Celsius.  

 

Here is raw video footage of the fire inside the city. 

 

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.2886786

 

 

This is the latest news items on this dangerous fire.

 

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.2887030

 

Can someone fix the links so they show video please? Im not sure how.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Greg Dent

[Greg Dent]

Update the Province of Alberta has issued a Province wide state of emergency. This fire is totally out of control and the entire Province is tinder dry. Record high temps and strong winds are driving this so fast fire crews are having trouble keeping safe. The fire has resisted all fire suppression efforts.  Even the emergency operations center has had to move to another town. The fire has gotten too close for the safety of the staff that was there. I seriously doubt that even the brothers are able to keep in touch right now. Watch the ctv news site for the latest info.  This is a life threatening situation that is affecting upwards of 100,000 people or more. 

 

There are expecting a cold front to come through but they are only expecting a 30% chance of rain on Monday. So this will not go well for the fire crews. If they get any lightning it could make this things hundreds of times worse.

[ReadYourBible]

To further complicate matters thousands that have evacuated to Anzac are now under evacuation orders.  I will find out what aid is needed for our brothers in Ft. McMurray tomorrow at my meeting.  I'm certain they've organized everyone and gotten them out, so far no loss of life has occurred.  

 

That being said, not many people will have much to go back to.  In 2011 we had a massive fire which nearly took out the town of Slave Lake, this is much worse.   I know more, but am not permitted to say, as I work for Disaster Recovery and we're under a confidentiality order. 

 

 

[RaymondG]

I saw on the running news headlines at a rest area last night that they expect insurance claims in the region of nine billion dollars when this is through...

 

That's for reconstruction, I guess there would be other stuff, cars, boats and so on.

 

Commercialisation shines through right away. And I'd bet we'd see a ripple of higher premiums right around the globe just like we did after the Twin Towers went down.

 

Like others, I do hope everyone's safe and able to stay calm. I'm in Canada at the moment and it's very much the talk of the country.