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Alberta fires: everybody ok?

prairiewindmomma

By prairiewindmomma,
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denarii

denarii

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2 hours ago, Arctic Bunny said:

Do they have livestock to sort out as well? That’s extra stressful, on top of losing feed!

My sister doesn't except for some cats (they grain farm) but her in-laws do and my uncle does. 

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prairiewindmomma

prairiewindmomma

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1 hour ago, MEmama said:

This article is about wildfires in Australia not Alberta, but this is fascinating. The feedback loop is a terrifying sign of what's to come.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/11/black-summer-bushfires-may-have-caused-rare-triple-dip-la-nina-study-suggests?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

For us here on the west coast in the US, a triple La Niña was a huge blessing. La Niña years are cooler and wetter for us. Had we had hotter and drier years we would have had even more burning than usual. 

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MEmama

MEmama

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4 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

For us here on the west coast in the US, a triple La Niña was a huge blessing. La Niña years are cooler and wetter for us. Had we had hotter and drier years we would have had even more burning than usual. 

True, except more rain= more vegetation= more fuel for fires, the feedback loop. The rain and snowpack were wonderful for filling reservoirs, not great for growing more stuff that can burn during the dry season. Ugh! 

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bolt.

bolt.

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A shift in winds has just brought thick smoke into my area of Alberta. The Air Quality Index is telling us it's "10+" meaning the scale wasn't designed to give information about this level of particulates. I just bought an air filter. The recommendation is to stay indoors as much as possible with doors and windows tightly sealed and hvac systems off or internally circulating only. Even indoors, we are limiting activity. We all have headaches.

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Starr

Starr

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1 minute ago, bolt. said:

A shift in winds has just brought thick smoke into my area of Alberta. The Air Quality Index is telling us it's "10+" meaning the scale wasn't designed to give information about this level of particulates. I just bought an air filter. The recommendation is to stay indoors as much as possible with doors and windows tightly sealed and hvac systems off or internally circulating only. Even indoors, we are limiting activity. We all have headaches.

That's awful! I'm so sorry. Can you get away for a bit or it just everywhere?

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bolt.

bolt.

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Just now, Starr said:

That's awful! I'm so sorry. Can you get away for a bit or it just everywhere?

There's no sense leaving the house, really, unless we could get quite far away. The indoor AQI is doing fine (our new air purifier says) so I think we will just hunker down. I should bake some bread, because I'm not bothering with the grocery store until I *really* need to.

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prairiewindmomma

prairiewindmomma

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1 hour ago, bolt. said:

A shift in winds has just brought thick smoke into my area of Alberta. The Air Quality Index is telling us it's "10+" meaning the scale wasn't designed to give information about this level of particulates. I just bought an air filter. The recommendation is to stay indoors as much as possible with doors and windows tightly sealed and hvac systems off or internally circulating only. Even indoors, we are limiting activity. We all have headaches.

bolt—we really struggled with headaches during last year’s fires. We were running HEPA filters in each room, but it wasn’t enough. We ended up building a corsi rosenthal box (4 filters and a box fan) and that did a lot to clean up our air. We have an IQ air monitor and we could watch the change after just 15 minutes.

If you can get out to buy 4 20x20 filters and a box fan and a roll of duct tape, I highly recommend it.

The filters turned brown after about 3 days, so buy extra filters if you can. Amazon didn’t do deliveries for us (they shut down to protect workers), but ordering through Home Depot still got stuff to our door after local stores ran out.

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wathe

wathe

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2 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

bolt—we really struggled with headaches during last year’s fires. We were running HEPA filters in each room, but it wasn’t enough. We ended up building a corsi rosenthal box (4 filters and a box fan) and that did a lot to clean up our air. We have an IQ air monitor and we could watch the change after just 15 minutes.

If you can get out to buy 4 20x20 filters and a box fan and a roll of duct tape, I highly recommend it.

The filters turned brown after about 3 days, so buy extra filters if you can. Amazon didn’t do deliveries for us (they shut down to protect workers), but ordering through Home Depot still got stuff to our door after local stores ran out.

Seconding CR boxes.  We've built lots of these.

@bolt. If 16x25 inch filters are easier to source (they are in my area), you can use those too; results in a taller, thinner box.  The filtration area 4x25x16 is the same as 4x20x20 .  You'd need to add a second cardboard shroud under the fan to fill the gap.    My local costco sells 16x25 inch high-filtration Kirkland brand filters in convenient 4 packs, at a decent price (were $37.99 locally in the fall, on  line price now higher).  20-inch box fans are $30 at Canadian Tire or Home Hardware.  You can build the whole thing for well under $100, including the cost of tape and GST.  

Website with everything you could ever want to know about Corsi-Rosenthal boxes.

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Arctic Bunny

Arctic Bunny

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On 5/16/2023 at 11:55 AM, bolt. said:

A shift in winds has just brought thick smoke into my area of Alberta. The Air Quality Index is telling us it's "10+" meaning the scale wasn't designed to give information about this level of particulates. I just bought an air filter. The recommendation is to stay indoors as much as possible with doors and windows tightly sealed and hvac systems off or internally circulating only. Even indoors, we are limiting activity. We all have headaches.

We’re at 11 in SK today…

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bolt.

bolt.

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7 minutes ago, Arctic Bunny said:

We’re at 11 in SK today…

You have 11? How high does your scale go?

As for us, the air inside the house is at a good level (our air purifier has a sensor on it) so I don't think we need the filter-box fan approach. It's good that many of our Canadian houses are built for winter, because they seal well to keep the outdoor smoke from just flowing inside. My mom-in-law has a mobile home, and even winter-tight, it's not doing a great job with the smoke.

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Arctic Bunny

Arctic Bunny

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, bolt. said:

You have 11? How high does your scale go?

As for us, the air inside the house is at a good level (our air purifier has a sensor on it) so I don't think we need the filter-box fan approach. It's good that many of our Canadian houses are built for winter, because they seal well to keep the outdoor smoke from just flowing inside. My mom-in-law has a mobile home, and even winter-tight, it's not doing a great job with the smoke.

I don’t know now! We’re always a 1 whenever I accidentally click there, lol!

 

ETA: After looking, I think that on the watch weather app, it reads 11 instead of 10+? 

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bolt.

bolt.

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24 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Are you guys aware of this website? https://fire.airnow.gov/?lat=42.795455354027744&lng=-122.17885965730794&zoom=07
 

Seeing the smoke layers and flow patterns has been helpful for us.

Thanks! That's really helpful. We have plans to visit friends a bit north of us, and this tells me that their smoke level is considerably lower than ours. Good to know!

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kbutton

kbutton

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19 minutes ago, denarii said:

Yellowknife just issued an evacuation order 20,000 people. The closest city with capacity is Grande Prairie which is 1200km away. Most evacuees will be heading to Edmonton or Calgary. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66526554

It says the roads out of town had been closed due to fire, but it’s stalled for the moment. Sounds like it was almost a complete tragedy and is now terrifying but not as bad. Crazy! 

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denarii

denarii

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2 minutes ago, kbutton said:

It says the roads out of town had been closed due to fire, but it’s stalled for the moment. Sounds like it was almost a complete tragedy and is now terrifying but not as bad. Crazy! 

Hay River has been evacuated twice this year alone. Enterprise is gone 😥. If my math is right about 70% of the NWT is under evacuation order. 

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denarii

denarii

Posted
Posted (edited)

Bumping this thread.

The fire around Jasper is in the city. Major structures are being lost. They are trying to save key infrastructure but it doesn't look good 😔

 

FB_IMG_1721913538603.jpg

FB_IMG_1721913998058.jpg

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denarii

denarii

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3 minutes ago, Tree Frog said:

Same place a year later. That's terrible! Have you evacuated? As trite as it sounds, stay safe! 

Same place as in same province but not same town. Jasper didn't burn like this last year, Edson was close. It's not just Alberta though, there are fires in BC and NWT. My brother was evacuated out of Labrador City and thats on the other side of the country.

I'm not near an active fire right now. We had a close call earlier this spring but it was contained before it reached the town. 

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denarii

denarii

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10 minutes ago, wintermom said:

So sad about Jasper! I hope the people are ok. I heard that shelters were available in Edmonton, but that's 5 hrs away. Hopefully people have someplace closer as an option.

Grande Prairie is one of the cities people have evacuated to. 

Hwy 16 runs east-west through Jasper Township and National Park. Hwy 93 runs south of Jasper and fires threatened the road. 

There was only one way, Hwy 16 west to Valemount, B.C., on to Prince George and then complete a loop into Grande Prairie. Most people would have continued on to Edmonton or gone south from Valemount to Calgary. Or Valemount-Calgary-Edmonton. That route might have been faster than Grande Prairie-Edmonton.

 

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wintermom

wintermom

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4 minutes ago, denarii said:

Grande Prairie is one of the cities people have evacuated to. 

That's where they had forest fires last year - and it's still 4 hrs away. That must be so tough for people to relocate so far away. I hope Grande Prairie and that area are ok this year. They had a terrible time last year. 

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denarii

denarii

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5 minutes ago, wintermom said:

That's where they had forest fires last year - and it's still 4 hrs away. That must be so tough for people to relocate so far away. I hope Grande Prairie and that area are ok this year. They had a terrible time last year. 

Yes and no. Lots of fires around Grande Prairie but the city was never evacuated. I think one or two of the more outer subdivisions were but the city core was safe. Grande Prairie takes a lot of evacuees because of its location. 

And because people could not go east and had to evacuate west out of Jasper Grande Prairie was much much more than 4 hours away 😕

There just aren't many communities in Northern Alberta that can handle that many people. 

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wintermom

wintermom

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4 minutes ago, denarii said:

Yes and no. Lots of fires around Grande Prairie but the city was never evacuated. I think one or two of the more outer subdivisions were but the city core was safe. Grande Prairie takes a lot of evacuees because of its location. 

And because people could not go east and had to evacuate west out of Jasper Grande Prairie was much much more than 4 hours away 😕

There just aren't many communities in Northern Alberta that can handle that many people. 

Oh wow! I didn't realize they had to reroute west and then northeast. That's scary. No, northern Alberta, nor northern BC, have many large centres to rehouse large numbers of people. Perhaps the NFL model from "Come From Away" will need to be immamented soon? 😉 

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Arcadia

Arcadia

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, wintermom said:

What about the historic Jasper Park Lodge? I hope it survived. 

https://www.fairmont.com/jasper/
“As of 10:00 p.m. MT on July 24, 2024, we can confirm that the fire has reached the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge grounds, however we are unclear about the extent of the damage. At this time, we know that parts of the resort remain untouched. We are monitoring the situation remotely and will provide more information as it becomes available.

…

Find the latest updates regarding this evolving situation at:

         •  Parks Canada Wildfire Website
         •  Jasper National Park Facebook Page
         •  Municipality of Jasper Facebook Page
         •  Alberta 511”


https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7274825
“During a news conference Thursday, Premier Danielle Smith said the full extent of the damage is unknown but a large portion of the townsite has been destroyed.

Images coming out of Jasper are "horrific," she told reporters.

"We are seeing potentially 30 to 50 per cent structural damage," Smith said.

"You have seen the images, as I have. We don't know particularly which structures have been damaged and which ones have been destroyed but that is going to be a significant rebuild." 

…

Jasper wildfire 2024 The Maligne Lodge hotel is one of the structures that burned in Jasper, Alta., after a wildfire reached the townsite Wednesday evening. (Name withheld)”

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bookbard

bookbard

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Oh, that's just devastating. People must be so traumatised. We have been so lucky to have wet years since the 2019/2020 fires on the east coast of Australia (well, lucky where we are - there have been horrific floods), so we've had time between fires. To have them so close together must be terrifying. 

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Arcadia

Arcadia

Posted
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Posted on Jasper National Park’s Facebook page

”

⚠️ Jasper Complex Wildfire Update: Current as of 4:38 pm ⚠️

🔺 Structural damage update
We know that people are seeing images from Jasper and are anxious for more information about the extent of impacts to the town. 

Structural fire protection units are still fighting fires within the town and continue to fight fires moving from one building to another. We appreciate your patience as we work to make conditions in the town safe enough for a detailed assessment to be completed. 

Incident Command is able to confirm that all critical infrastructure in Jasper was successfully protected including the hospital, emergency services building, both elementary and junior/senior schools, activity centre and wastewater treatment plant. 

Although more time is needed to complete a detailed damage assessment, it is clear that some homes and businesses have been lost.

The most significant structural damage is concentrated on the west side of town, southwest of Miette Avenue. Firefighting efforts have prevented significant damage to much of the infrastructure in the east end of town. Our priority remains protecting structures that have not yet been impacted by fire.

The fire also damaged a number of bridges around the town and throughout the national park, including the Moberly Bridge and the Old Fort Point Bridge. Bridges on the Icefields Parkway will need to be assessed for structural damage as well. These impacts will slow down access to the Maligne Lake and Highway 93 and it will take time for a full damage assessment to take place in these areas.

…

ℹ️ Another update will be provided today, July 25 before 10 pm.“

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