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Any Fort McMurray Boardies? Are you all right?


chiguirre
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And there are only two roads out of the city: south or north: plenty of gridlock. It's terrifying. (Not to me. I'm in the province, not near there. Just concerned about aquaintences.)

Edited by bolt.
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Note to anyone displaced: I'm in province and have space. PM for more info.

 

:wub:  :wub:  :wub:   You ROCK!  (I'm not there, but been through wildfires in 2 states and they are scary!  Give me a good ole hurricane any day of the week!)

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There are so many stories of bravery and inspiration coming out of this tragedy, but this one really speaks to me about the heart of the community:

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/close-brush-with-flames-staff-at-alberta-school-bring-students-through-wildfire/article29933292/

 

An elementary school needed to evacuate and the school buses couldn't get to the school due to all the traffic of people fleeing. The staff of the school used their own vehicles to get seventy students to safety (the others had been picked up by parents). None of the staff were able to go to their own homes to collect anything because they were helping the children. Their neighbourhood burned to the ground. I can't imagine how scared those children would haven been driving beside the walls of flame and not knowing where their parents were, and how frantic the parents would have been when they couldn't reach the school. They all made it out safely thanks to those staff members.

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If you've ever wondered how fast a forest fire will engulf a home, this guy's home security camera was on & still transmitting while he was evacuating. Devastating & so fast. 

 

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmonton/2016/05/05/man-watches-house-burn-on-security-cam.html

 

 

 

 

I saw this yesterday and it made me weep. I can't even fathom sitting somewhere and watching my house go up in flames. There was a fishtank, and photos on the tables, and throw pillows... I truly cannot even imagine the horror. 

 

I have a question. What happens if the fire keeps going? I mean, that seems like a really stupid question, but seriously. If there's no rain, nothing to stop it--it just keeps burning and burning and burning? Is it feasible that it could eventually destroy, say, the whole province? The concept is so big I can't even imagine what the possible results could realistically be. What eventually puts out a fire that big? Days of heavy rain? 

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There are so many stories of bravery and inspiration coming out of this tragedy, but this one really speaks to me about the heart of the community:

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/close-brush-with-flames-staff-at-alberta-school-bring-students-through-wildfire/article29933292/

 

An elementary school needed to evacuate and the school buses couldn't get to the school due to all the traffic of people fleeing. The staff of the school used their own vehicles to get seventy students to safety (the others had been picked up by parents). None of the staff were able to go to their own homes to collect anything because they were helping the children. Their neighbourhood burned to the ground. I can't imagine how scared those children would haven been driving beside the walls of flame and not knowing where their parents were, and how frantic the parents would have been when they couldn't reach the school. They all made it out safely thanks to those staff members.

 

That reminds me of the stories of the teachers at the world trade center carrying the infants in their arms, and herding the toddlers until they got to a grocery store and loaded them into shopping carts so they could move faster and get further from the clouds of dust. 

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I saw this yesterday and it made me weep. I can't even fathom sitting somewhere and watching my house go up in flames. There was a fishtank, and photos on the tables, and throw pillows... I truly cannot even imagine the horror. 

 

I have a question. What happens if the fire keeps going? I mean, that seems like a really stupid question, but seriously. If there's no rain, nothing to stop it--it just keeps burning and burning and burning? Is it feasible that it could eventually destroy, say, the whole province? The concept is so big I can't even imagine what the possible results could realistically be. What eventually puts out a fire that big? Days of heavy rain? 

 

Alberta is huge. That would be like almost the entire state of Texas burning.  Overall, it's pretty sparsely populated.  If Alberta were a state, it would be ranked 27th for population size. It has about the same number of people as Oregon.

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I saw this yesterday and it made me weep. I can't even fathom sitting somewhere and watching my house go up in flames. There was a fishtank, and photos on the tables, and throw pillows... I truly cannot even imagine the horror.

 

I have a question. What happens if the fire keeps going? I mean, that seems like a really stupid question, but seriously. If there's no rain, nothing to stop it--it just keeps burning and burning and burning? Is it feasible that it could eventually destroy, say, the whole province? The concept is so big I can't even imagine what the possible results could realistically be. What eventually puts out a fire that big? Days of heavy rain?

We had a significant fire a couple of years ago and for us a heavy rain dealt with most of it. However there were small flare ups here and there for around six weeks as eucalyptus trees can keep burning underground for a long time. I wonder though I'm not a climate person if the huge smoke cloud provides a kind of cloud seeding as fires here often seem to be followed by heavy rain. Or maybe that's just the Australia climate pattern of heat then rain bringing relief. The other major fire here last November was also followed by heavy rain but it was about a month before all the spot fires and flare ups were out.

 

It's also helpful to visualise the fire as not just one big mass of flames but as fronts at the edges. It an still be a massive front but if the wind isn't pushing it eventually you can bulldoze or backburn breaks. While it is being pushed by 40 plus mph winds you can't but if the wind drops and humidity increase you can make serious progress.

Edited by Ausmumof3
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I saw this yesterday and it made me weep. I can't even fathom sitting somewhere and watching my house go up in flames. There was a fishtank, and photos on the tables, and throw pillows... I truly cannot even imagine the horror. 

 

I have a question. What happens if the fire keeps going? I mean, that seems like a really stupid question, but seriously. If there's no rain, nothing to stop it--it just keeps burning and burning and burning? Is it feasible that it could eventually destroy, say, the whole province? The concept is so big I can't even imagine what the possible results could realistically be. What eventually puts out a fire that big? Days of heavy rain? 

 

 

they will be digging fire breaks - probably very big ones.  not sure of the terrain - but terrain does affect how a fire moves. (and fires can create  their own weather.)  last reports I read were the eastern edge was heading for northern Saskatchewan. 

 

I just  hope we  don't have a repeat of the fires of Yellowstone  (1988, almost 794K acres burned = 36% of the park.)  - after that summer of fires, those weren't out until it snowed.  It's only May.  my heart goes out to the people affected by these fires.  pray for rain - lots and lots of rain.

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We had a significant fire a couple of years ago and for us a heavy rain dealt with most of it. However there were small flare ups here and there for around six weeks as eucalyptus trees can keep burning underground for a long time. I wonder though I'm not a climate person if the huge smoke cloud provides a kind of cloud seeding as fires here often seem to be followed by heavy rain. Or maybe that's just the Australia climate pattern of heat then rain bringing relief. The other major fire here last November was also followed by heavy rain but it was about a month before all the spot fires and flare ups were out.

 

It's also helpful to visualise the fire as not just one big mass of flames but as fronts at the edges. It an still be a massive front but if the wind isn't pushing it eventually you can bulldoze or backburn breaks. While it is being pushed by 40 plus mph winds you can't but if the wind drops and humidity increase you can make serious progress.

interesting thought - cloud seeding is very picky about particulate size.  but it would make sense.  nature wants fires to clean out plant build up, some coniferous cones only open to release their seeds in extremely high temps.  nature can also come up with a way to put the fires out.

 

most recent I've read (this morning, from 9 hours ago) is cooler weather is moving in (for a few days) with some/potential light showers.   crews have moved into hotels in town as the fires have moved past those areas.  it is still "only" at 390K acres - when they had been expecting it to pass 500K.

 

for the visualization of the fires - I'd like to add - it is a series of fires that extends west of town - and to the east.  the biggest concerns right now are it is heading for Saskatchewan and they do expect it to be months before it is all extinguished.

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Snow isn't out of the question either. Snow in May or June is a big surprise for southern Alberta, but it happens from time to time.

 

I imagine northern Alberta would likewise have the possibility of a nice big snow dump at this time of year, if circumstances were just right.

 

Thunder-and-hail would be fantastic too.

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