Fort Mac Wildfire Thread

[burn_this_city]

So depressed by this. Spent a decent amount of time in and around the city and it breaks my heart to see so many people lose everything.

[schteve_d]

50 L of fuel in. Even manage a coffee, A lottery ticket, and some beef jerky! Things are looking up!

[burn_this_city]

That Petro has liquor sales as well, just in case.. Also the burger bar just up the hill has decent food.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by agulati

Our camps at CNRL Horizon have a strict no pets or minors policy. That has been waived due to the fires. There are cats, dogs, lizards and birds in our camps now. We flew out a pregnant lady who was due tomorrow. We also have some new born babies on site at our medical centre.

I am really impressed how the producers have stepped up to help any and everyone in need.

Fuel, Food and water might be a shortage concern because of the fire continuing.

Heard about this on the news this morning and it's a pretty neat feel good story amidst all the devastation. Will be interesting to see what the place of birth on the birth certificate will say.

Small side story, my mom lives just NE of Edmonton and had a flight out of YEG today at noon. She damned near missed it due to the volume of traffic on Highway 28 coming into Edmonton. The effects of the fire are certainly spreading.

[Baron von Kriterium]

Current Military Situation

- 2 x CH-146 Griffons are in Fort Mac. The Griffons will come from Edmonton and Cold Lake.

- 1 x Herc from Trenton is in Cold Lake and is on call for when as needed. Other Hercs are on stand-by in Trenton.

- There are approximately 15 liaison officers attached to the ops center in Fort Mac and they will advise the civilians there on what military capabilities exist.

This is what the Province has requested from the Feds/DND:

- Assistance for municipal and provincial authorities who are helping people in distress;

- Assistance in evacuation of residents in isolated areas affected by the fire; and

- Assistance in the transportation of equipment and personnel to isolated areas to fight the fire.

Previously, I have made mention of ground forces and this might be construed as Army, but this component can also include RCN and RCAF personnel. In fact, I have heard that personnel from Esquimalt have been placed on stand-by. Whether that is for Ft Mac or BC, I do not know, but I do know BC has their own issues with fires as well.

[schteve_d]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

That Petro has liquor sales as well, just in case.. Also the burger bar just up the hill has decent food.

I was at the other one. I think it is called the ravens nest. Not sure when you were last there: used to be that crummy little place about halfway to you Anzac off 63. It's a nice petro now.

[jschick88]

News Talk 770 ‏@NewsTalk770 5 minutes ago
.@innfromthecold #yyc ready for 30 or so #ymm evacuees - no timeline but they are en route. have space for upwards of 70. #ymmfire

Inn from the Cold ‏@innfromthecold 2 hours ago
We have officially committed to providing assistance to #families who have been impacted by evacuation #ymmfire

Inn from the Cold ‏https://twitter.com/innfromthecold?lang=en 39 minutes ago
We have 30 evacuees arriving in the next hour. Glad we can help & pls stay tuned 4 of list of critical #donations #ymmfire

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Baron von Kriterium

Current Military Situation

- 2 x CH-146 Griffons are in Fort Mac. The Griffons will come from Edmonton and Cold Lake.

- 1 x Herc from Trenton is in Cold Lake and is on call for when as needed. Other Hercs are on stand-by in Trenton.

- There are approximately 15 liaison officers attached to the ops center in Fort Mac and they will advise the civilians there on what military capabilities exist.

This is what the Province has requested from the Feds/DND:

- Assistance for municipal and provincial authorities who are helping people in distress;

- Assistance in evacuation of residents in isolated areas affected by the fire; and

- Assistance in the transportation of equipment and personnel to isolated areas to fight the fire.

Previously, I have made mention of ground forces and this might be construed as Army, but this component can also include RCN and RCAF personnel. In fact, I have heard that personnel from Esquimalt have been placed on stand-by. Whether that is for Ft Mac or BC, I do not know, but I do know BC has their own issues with fires as well.

What of the rumours of the C-17 being readied at CFB Trenton?

[jschick88]

News Talk 770 ‏@NewsTalk770 37 seconds ago
JUST IN: @cityofcalgary says it's been asked to deploy Canada Taskforce 2 disaster response team to support #ymmfire. #ymm #yyc

[KevanGuy]

Looks like it's getting pretty close to the airport. You csn see it encroaching on the right hand side. Here is the link with the Webcam:

http://www.metcam.navcanada.ca/hb/pl...&cam=65&lang=e

[Sled]

My Mom is in Fire Bag Airport right now waiting on the airplanes to come back and get them. She said there were several planes from all kinds of carriers on site and by the time she hit the airport the planes were full heading to both Edmonton and Calgary. The planes are expected to drop off their passengers and head back for the next group. Just wanted to give a big shout out to the Pilots, FAs, and ground crews facilitating this and to the numerous people offering their time, homes, food and supplies to help those in need. Today certainly makes me proud to be an Albertan from Cape Breton.

[Baron von Kriterium]

Originally Posted by peter12

What of the rumours of the C-17 being readied at CFB Trenton?

The Air Force zoomie sits right next to me and he hasn't heard anything.

[midniteowl]

Thank God, my friend got on the plane and now in Edmonton.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

Honest question but what could they even do at this point in time other than putting people into harms way? It appears to be at a size where only an absolutely massive fire break would be able to stop it and there really isn't any time to do that. The only thing that I could think of would be for air support from helicopters form 408 to be jury rigged with water carrying capacity.

I am not a wildland fire fighter by any stretch but I know quite a few of them and from asking a few of them about this fire, when it reaches this size, with these conditions there isn't much that can be done that doesn't significantly place people's lives at risk.

I work with BC Wildfire as a wild land firefighter and I can confirm that this is accurate. A fire not only this size but more importantly a fire this powerful, where there is fire travelling through the canopy of trees, is extremely extremely difficult to manage. You are going to be operating with a very defensive approach, creating large fire breaks far in advance (sometimes kilometres) on the fires path. Canopy fires are borderline unstoppable. You really need weather to cooperate and it looks like conditions are extremely unfavourable for the firefighters.

As far as managing the fires within the city I can't comment on that as that is largely structural firefighting so I don't know if more resources would help there.

However seeing CAN-TF2 being deployed from Calgary is only going to help, these are highly trained men and women that deal exactly with these types of emergencies. I wouldn't be surprised to see CAN-TF1 located in Vancouver deployed as well.

The best news is that it appears everyone has been evacuated safely and Albertans are all reaching out to help. Times like these really galvanize communities and Albertans will again show the country the great people they are.

[KevanGuy]

Town of Slave Lake ‏@TownSlaveLake 1h1 hour ago

Councillor Mark Missal released the following photo of the #ymmfire

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

I appreciate it, I have heard a couple of people calling for the military to be called in, but I honestly don't know what can be done at this point in time other than hoping that the weather shows some mercy for the rest of the town. At this point in time I have to think that the best thing that can be done would be the creation of large firebreaks in the future around communities of a certain size that would at least be able to give them a fighting chance, but in a situation like this, I don't know how much good that would do when you consider the size and enormity of this fire and how it spread.

[Nyah]

It's pretty upsetting seeing posts on social media desperately seeking people who are still in Fort Mac to go to their homes & pick up pets that they weren't able to get to before being evacuated. The feeling of guilt & dread would be absolutely unbearable.

[undercoverbrother]

I just saw on twitter that a State of Emergency has been declared.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Nyah

It's pretty upsetting seeing posts on social media desperately seeking people who are still in Fort Mac to go to their homes & pick up pets that they weren't able to get to before being evacuated. The feeling of guilt & dread would be absolutely unbearable.

Yeah that is really bothering me. Have they been having any success getting the pets out?

[midniteowl]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Yeah that is really bothering me. Have they been having any success getting the pets out?

I can't help but getting teary eyes when reading about this, has anyone heard anything about helping to get those pets out?