Fort Mac Wildfire Thread

[firebug]

Originally Posted by Keselke

Made a donation,

Thread seems to have become a circle jerk of stating your donation amount, rather than news about Fort Mac. Having to fish through 15 posts of varying amount to see any actual updates

I was waiting for 'thispostisterrible' to thank that. But Peter12 did, so we are covered ;-)

[Madman]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Morning satellite update:

Spoiler!

Not looking good today. Looks like a lot of fresh outbreaks just east of the city across the river, and a few slightly north. Also a large patch south and along the highway. The main body of the fire has moved SE and looks to have overrun Anzac and about half of the Long Lake SAGD project site.
Another arm further east is also fairly large, but not much in it's path. The patch that started due east of Ft Mac has grown much larger as well.

Apparently I had the wrong Hangingstone project highlighted in my previous map, the Athabasca one is much closer to Ft Mac but I haven't found a map showing exactly where it is.

Its here.

With 5 and 10km radius circles.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I was talking to a claims advisor at TD Insurance today and she mentioned how tough it's been on the phone lines working with McMurray folks who have had a total loss event. One of the steps to do is to try and recite an inventory of what they've lost (as best they can) but that usually triggers tears as one would expect once they realize the irreplacable items lost.

One important fact to remember - typically insurance pays out for you to rebuild the affected structure. It does not let you get paid out and move elsewhere. An important fact to remember given the housing market in Ft. Mac.

True of course regarding the structure, but for the contents I would expect that most insurers will end up paying the limit. I mean when these places are burned to the foundations the schedule of loss isn't going to be perfect and it shouldn't be dragged out.

In a former life I did claims and did a bunch in the Erlton condo fire. Not even close in terms of scope, but when you have no building left and a policy says the contents were worth $x you basically took a brief idea of what the contents were,and cut the cheque to let people get on with rebuilding as best as possible.

The other important point here is that the policies often pay for expenses if you are evacuated for an insured peril (fire is going to qualify for almost any policy). So keep receipts for things like hotels, food and other similar expenses.

[DoubleF]

https://medium.com/@mcmurraymap/dama...e45#.fg1gm9u3f

Damage assessment maps. There's too many to link.

The site notes the info might not be fully correct. But it's definitely eye opening to what the "estimates" I guess these volunteers have put together based on the info they have gathered.

[Peanut]

The facilities (all facilities up there) are supposed to be Fire SMART, so should theoretically have enough distance from the trees and maintenance of grasses and brush such that they wouldn't burn in a wildfire. Not sure if it's ever really been put to the test in a fire of this magnitude, though.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

How threatened is oilsands infrastructure?

[Otto-matic]

Friends, employees, colleagues, customers,
We know that all of us feel like we want to do something to help our fellow Albertans in Fort McMurray and we have no doubt that in the days ahead there will be many ways to donate real dollars to try and help those folks get back on their feet and get their lives back together. In the meantime, we understand that there is a real need RIGHT NOW for diapers, wipes, new socks, new underwear, new pillows and pillow cases; hygiene products and toiletries.
West Canadian would like to fill up our one ton cube van to take to Edmonton on Saturday morning for delivery to the Fort McMurray Relief Centre. We want to make sure that this truck goes to the Relief Centre filled to the brim.
If you can bring even one item to West Canadian in Calgary (1601 – 9th Avenue S.E.) or to West Canadian in Edmonton (10567 – 109th Street) before Friday night, we will make sure that these products are delivered on Saturday to get to the right people as soon as possible.
If you cannot bring your products to our offices, please call us (Calgary – 403 245 2555) or Edmonton (780 424 1000) or e-mail us at ftmacaid@westcanadian.com and we will send one of our delivery vans to pick up whatever you might want to give.
There will be other long term plans, we all know that, but this is quick relief for an immediate issue.

West Canadian is doing a supply run on Saturday, if you have any goods or items you'd like to get sent up to help the residents of Fort Mac. We are also collecting them at our oil & gas offsites downtown in the print rooms, For anyone at Husky we'll be collecting them until probably 3:30/4 today.

[Ironhorse]

$50 from myself and a friend in Redding, California

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

How threatened is oilsands infrastructure?

The fire is on top of long lake it looks like. Next closest facility I think would be ConocoPhillips surmont, located to the southeast. Not sure how far apart the facilities are.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by Peanut

The facilities (all facilities up there) are supposed to be Fire SMART, so should theoretically have enough distance from the trees and maintenance of grasses and brush such that they wouldn't burn in a wildfire. Not sure if it's ever really been put to the test in a fire of this magnitude, though.

Maybe this should be a standard for municipalities encircled by forests...Bragg Creek for example.

[Burninator]

$100 donated from me.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by Peanut

The fire is on top of long lake it looks like. Next closest facility I think would be ConocoPhillips surmont, located to the southeast. Not sure how far apart the facilities are.

I would think the Cheecham Terminal is a major concern as well.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

How threatened is oilsands infrastructure?

the big ones are way north of the city, so no threat to them... yet

[peter12]

Let's not even think about the oil sands facilities. It would be an enormous catastrophe.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Peanut

The facilities (all facilities up there) are supposed to be Fire SMART, so should theoretically have enough distance from the trees and maintenance of grasses and brush such that they wouldn't burn in a wildfire. Not sure if it's ever really been put to the test in a fire of this magnitude, though.

You do realize that forest fires can throw embers many kilometers ahead of the actual fire front. This is called spotting.

Fire smart only helps with low intensity surface fires.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by peter12

Let's not even think about the oil sands facilities. It would be an enormous catastrophe.

It's time to start thinking about it based on that satellite imagery. The fire looks to be on top of one SAGD and upgrading facility already. If it keeps moving east that would avoid most (all?) of the more southern SAGD operations.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by habernac

the big ones are way north of the city, so no threat to them... yet

There's quite a few SAGD operations in the general direction that the fire is moving south. There's a lot of distance between it still at this point however.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

Maybe this should be a standard for municipalities encircled by forests...Bragg Creek for example.

IT was posted earlier in the thread:

http://wildfire.alberta.ca/fire-smar...t-program.aspx


Perhaps making it mandatory might be a good idea, but as always $.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by peter12

Let's not even think about the oil sands facilities. It would be an enormous catastrophe.

I trust the person I heard this from, but this person does not know how valid this info is and whether it was an individual musing out loud or someone with actual info.

There are musings from within the company that two pads at Long Lake have succumbed to fire, but not official reports on it yet.

I don't know the validity of this info and have struggled with whether I should even put this info out there as it might be just spreading someone's speculation misheard as truth (Previous deleted post).

I'd also mention, I don't know what losing two "pads" means.

EDIT: I know what a well pad is, I just don't know how you determine you "lost two".

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

You do realize that forest fires can throw embers many kilometers ahead of the actual fire front. This is called spotting.

Fire smart only helps with low intensity surface fires.

I do realize that forest fires spot, yes. I thought the goal was also to minimize anything for the embers to actually ignite (I.e brush and grasses within the cleared facility areas. Obviously the petroleum products are another issue entirely). I could be wrong though.