A massive wildfire in Canada has destroyed 1,600 homes and forced 80,000 people to flee

44 Comments on "A massive wildfire in Canada has destroyed 1,600 homes and forced 80,000 people to flee"

makati1 on Thu, 5th May 2016 7:11 pm 



Mother Nature/climate change does not recognize humans. This is only a taste of what is to come as things heat up across the world. No area is safe from what humans started by releasing millions of years of solar energy in a few hundred years.

Pass the popcorn.

John Kintree on Thu, 5th May 2016 7:32 pm 



Yep.

onlooker on Thu, 5th May 2016 7:58 pm 



Yep, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Pardon the pun. Humans cannot even fathom what a Massive Extinction Event is like. We have precipitated such an event with our reckless emissions.

GregT on Thu, 5th May 2016 8:01 pm 



Anybody wanting to see what it was like first hand during the evacuation, the following short video is surreal.

Keep in mind that this video was taken at 2:47 in the afternoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC2iPvXAggM

GregT on Thu, 5th May 2016 8:05 pm 



The latest news I heard was that over 100,000 have been evacuated so far, and they will soon be evacuating other communities. There is no hope left of fighting this fire, and they say that rain is the only thing that will help to get it under control. The local news here reported this afternoon that the fire area is now larger than the entire City of Vancouver. 850 square kilometres.

GregT on Thu, 5th May 2016 8:09 pm 



With some 25 million hectares of dead standing trees due to climate change already, in BC and Northern Alberta alone, this fire season could turn out to be apocalyptic. These massive fires generate their own weather patterns, including lightning, which in turn sparks more fires. There’s a big difference between a forest fire, and a firestorm.

onlooker on Thu, 5th May 2016 8:16 pm 



Wow Greg, i watched that short video you linked. Looks like the aftermath of some World War.

onlooker on Thu, 5th May 2016 8:18 pm 



25 million. wow that is alot of fuel for the fire.

Northwest Resident on Thu, 5th May 2016 9:07 pm 



GregT — That is an amazing video!

Apneaman on Thu, 5th May 2016 9:25 pm 



Besieged by the Fires of Denial — Fort McMurray Blaze Grows to Overwhelm Anzac, Shuts off 640,000 Barrels per Day of Tar Sands Production

“The simple fact of the matter, a fact that many invested in a destructive oil industry do not want to now face, is that a fire whose early-season extreme intensity was fueled by human-caused climate change is now doing what Canada would not. It is shutting in oil production in the tar sands — one of the highest carbon fuels on planet Earth.”

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/05/05/besieged-by-the-fires-of-denial-fort-mcmurray-blaze-overwhelms-anzac-shuts-off-640000-barrels-of-tar-sand-production/

Survivalist on Thu, 5th May 2016 9:46 pm 



This years wildfire season will be massive. Huge amounts of carbon stored in dried out boreal peat bogs will ignite and be released. Just one more positive feedback in the global warming system.

Rice will probably hit over $1000 a ton this year due to drought. Standby for food riots across Asia and Africa.

dave thompson on Thu, 5th May 2016 10:19 pm 



https://youtu.be/uT0rXeo1SCI SHUT IT DOWN!

Plantagenet on Thu, 5th May 2016 11:05 pm 



The forest fire releases more CO2 which causes more global warming which causes more fires. Even the soot and participates from forest fires absorb heat and contribute to more global warming and more fires.

https://robertscribbler.com/2013/07/10/soot-from-forest-fires-yet-one-more-amplifying-feedback-to-human-caused-climate-change/

Global warming creates Fires which create a positive feedback loop creating more global warming which leads to more forest fires.

GregT on Thu, 5th May 2016 11:30 pm 



You forgot to mention the part about the burned trees no longer sequestering CO2 from the environment planter. Which even further exacerbates the problem.

Apneaman on Thu, 5th May 2016 11:35 pm 



Early estimate $9 Billion for one fire at the start of May in Northern Canada. Get the fuck out-a-town. How many more of these before it’s bankrupt time? And there will be more – we just getting started in western Canada. Gonna be a long hard fire season.

Size of Fort McMurray fire grows as fast as losses mount
Insurance experts mused about losses from the wildfire in the range of $9 billion if the town needs to be rebuilt — an amount almost equal to the annual budget of Nova Scotia.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/05/05/size-of-fort-mcmurray-fire-grows-as-fast-as-losses-mount.html

Apneaman on Thu, 5th May 2016 11:37 pm 



B.C. fire season flares up early forcing province to turn down Alberta request for help

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-fire-season-flares-up-early-thanks-to-unseasonably-warm-dry-weather-expert

Apneaman on Thu, 5th May 2016 11:38 pm 



Wildfires spark state of emergency, Alaska Highway advisory near Fort St. John
Wildfire B.C. says conditions likely to change, highway could close again on short notice

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alaska-highway-bc-wildfire-1.3569248

Survivalist on Fri, 6th May 2016 12:16 am 



and don’t forget about Russia

http://tass.ru/en/society/874013

It won’t be long until the arctic and sub arctic methane lets loose.

Hawkcreek on Fri, 6th May 2016 1:27 am 



The video was incredible. Good example of why you should not wait too late before you start to move out of town.

Remember the traffic out of Houston when the hurricane was on the way? Gas stations out of gas, just like with this one.

Go Speed Racer on Fri, 6th May 2016 1:28 am 



So when the helicopters dump water onto the fire, instead they could dump the nuclear waste from Hanford, from helicopters onto the fire. Since the goal is to funk up the environment, suggesting because just trying to help.

makati1 on Fri, 6th May 2016 1:44 am 



More thoughts on the subject:

“NASA data shows that March was also the 11th straight month in a row that set a new global temperature record. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that is the longest such streak ever recorded.

The Japan Meteorological Agency also reported that the first three months of this year were 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial baseline levels.”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/as-climate-disruption-advances-un-warns-the-future-is-happening-now/5523661

We live in interesting times.

Survivalist on Fri, 6th May 2016 2:10 am 



wait until the russian fires start going

dooma on Fri, 6th May 2016 4:22 am 



I have to agree with Plant. It seems like a vicious cycle when it comes to the drying of the forests and the increased magnitude of these fires.

It was only about 8 years ago that we lost over 160 people to most intense fires ever recorded in Australia.

My thoughts are with the Canadians during this dangerous time.

I am afraid that this is only the beginning of bigger fires to come. One scientist was quoted in Australia saying that if we keep having little rain and massive bushfires, we will have no more bush to burn in another decade!

Davy on Fri, 6th May 2016 5:25 am 



We are going to have to adapt to fires just like rising sea levels. It is a no brainer how you adapt to sea level rise, higher ground. In the case of fires we are going to have to reorganize how we live in fire prone regions. This will impact modern life just like the loss of coastal zones.

I have 400 acre farm where many of the acres are native grasses that must be burned every 2 years. I have mowed fire lines I maintain as fire breaks. I have disked up fire lines located in the troughs of terraces. These terraces were put in in the 50’s for soil conservation and now serve as great fire breaks. I disk the troughs to avoid erosion. We are going to have to remove trees from areas and create fire lines as old castle had moats and walls. We need to do prescribed burns to remove the fuel. Many fields I have will not burn well if the fuel load has not built up. When the fuel load is high and the conditions right the fire is quick and hot.

More than once I have sustained light burns from a fire that is so hot or a wind change. I don’t scare much anymore but when I burn my heart beats faster. My sympathies for those in harm’s way from fires. Fire is such an incredibly destructive force. At least floods are water and water is soothing. Fire is pure destruction.

My only question is are we going to have the money, time, and management to do these things? We are heading into a period of destructive change just as abrupt climate change creates mega problems. We are going to see our insurance industry get pummeled. We are going to see weather migrant’s stress the system. We are going to see economic abandonment from the loss of resources and abstract systems that no longer function in a climate changed world. What happens to a port that is flooded? What about towns in fire prone areas. You just don’t move towns because a forest has died from pine beetles and a mega fire could happen any time. We are in for an epic struggle with nature that we disregarded and abused for so many years.

Anonymous on Fri, 6th May 2016 5:31 am 



If we are fortunate, the uS strip mining operations in the tar-sands sacrifice zone will get destroyed as well. Right now, for the moment, they are intact, sadly. The only way ‘we’ will ever be able shut the tar-pits down will be from conditions the uS oil-corps created themselves. Wont do much good if the town is a write-off, but the strip-mines are basically intact. Sure, there workforce will be homeless and (gone). But that will only slow them down, not stop them.

Davy on Fri, 6th May 2016 6:01 am 



Anonymous quit justifying canadian complicity in the sins of the tar sands. You canadians should step up and be real men and shut it down if it is bothering you. It is your country and your policies that are allowing it. Blaming it on the mericants is standard stupid canadian behavior. Quit being a fucking coward asswipe.

JuanP on Fri, 6th May 2016 7:59 am 



650,000 bpd of tar sands production have been shut down. How will the daily pollution from the fires compare to the pollution from processing and burning that tar?

In Permaculture we design for future droughts, future floods, and future fires” Bill Molison

paulo1 on Fri, 6th May 2016 9:10 am 



I said in a previous thread, California emits 10X C02 than the Oil Sands, Texas 17X. If you want to be smug and save the world park your fucking cars and quit burning oil. You’re all hypocrits if you operate ICE, as far as I’m concerned. Blaming the Oil Sands for the fire is like blaming the poppy grower for a country’s heroin addiction, and we know how well that war is going. Unbelieveable.

This is a big fire, but not unusual except for being early in the year and where it hit. It also brings back memories of my first year flying in Yukon, on fires. I had just had surgery and was recovering from peritonitis due to a ruptured appendix. My weight had dropped at least 25 lbs and I could hardly lift anything. (But, I got my medical back). I pulled into Watson Lake at 2:00 am and slept in a campground. Fires had broken out along the Alaska highway and we had been directed through in groups…no stopping allowed. The next morning I arrived at the airbase and was asked if I was ready to start? Right away. (I had been expecting to ease into the work over a couple of weeks). I said that I could but couldn’t lift anything. “No problem, we have a swamper for you. This where you are going”. I hauled fuel and supplies for firefighting crews for 10 hours air time that first day….which is equivalent to about a 20 hour day in another line of work. Such was that summer.

That fire burned for months and ended up almost 100 miles long…30 wide. We evacuated people for weeks (off and on), and you haven’t lived until you fly over a fire into a lake with flames all around you, load in a dog team, saddles, guns, people, (horses turned loose to fend for themselves) and then climb out over the same damn fire…all because idiots did not evacuate early enough; convinced the fire would miss them.

That fire burned all summer, as did hundreds of others. This was in 1981.

The Ft Mac fire is dramatic because it has affected people and burned many many homes. The fire, itself, is not unusual. It happens, has happened, and will happen again, maybe with increasing frequency and maybe not. With the hydrological process speeding up due to GW perhaps we will even have more summer rains? Perhaps some years will be really dry and others really wet? In succeeding summers that I worked in the north it was sometimes bone dry down home (Vancouver Island)and rainy/cloudy all summer in Yukon and NWT.

Weather is not climate. This is going to be a terrible fire season by any estimation. Sask looks like it might be even worse that Alta this year. But no one knows how it will play out. Sometimes it starts out like this and then it starts to rain. I always pay particular attention to the fire season as my best friend still works on them flying those helicopters you see on tv bucketing on to hot spots. He has a 100 day contract, with an extension clause, if that is any indication. I haven’t heard from hims since he cleared Calgary on May 1st, which is also an indication. He is too busy/tired to email, most likely.

denial on Fri, 6th May 2016 9:19 am 



Canada is fu>>>>>

shortonoil on Fri, 6th May 2016 1:26 pm 



Thanks Paulo for putting a little reality into the situation. You should have seen the forest fire that took place 14,000 years ago during the Younger-Dryas Event. It burned the entire North American forest down, and much of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It occurred in conjunction with the extinction of hundreds of species. Nature is capable, all by Her Self, of devastation far beyond what any humans can do. The boreal forest have burned every year for tens of thousands of years. It must be the humbling in the face of powers that are much, much greater that what we humans posses that make us to try to attribute these kinds of occurrences to a our own doing. Forget it, you are a gnat to the hand of Nature; She can swat you anytime she chooses.

Apneaman on Fri, 6th May 2016 1:30 pm 



paulo, it’s at least a month early and temperature records are falling down like drunks. The day of the fire it was broken by 4C. Fire season is longer than a couple of decades ago. All this “fire is natural” or “normal” no longer applies. The trees up there evolved for fire – need fire, but now it’s so hot and dry and the fires so powerful that root systems are getting burned out. Not a normal part of the cycle – a cycle killer. It’s AGW. It’s the humans. The very fact that the tar sands is even in existence and trying to grow is indicative of suicidal mentality. I’m one of the guys that built the plants and I have spent a few years living in camps up there. I partied with many townies. The mentality has always been “fuck the environmentalist” “they should be shot and pissed on” “why don’t you leave the country if you don’t like it?” and “it’s a hoax” and on and on. It’s been who cares I want my fucking goodies and I don’t give a shit about anything else. Canada has just as much responsibility as anyone, more than most in fact since we are rich and supposed to be educated and soft power leaders. We were, but now Canada is viewed as just another cancer tumor by the rest of the world with zero credibility. We played along with the American PR denial machine from day one – we just bettered mannered and with more advanced vocabulary. As long as I don’t have to look at any pictures of crying terrified children, I have a hard time with sympathy for anyone. Maybe the same as a junkie or advanced alcoholic – a self inflicted tragedy that has deep cultural roots as well as biological ones. I’m 49 and I can remember the warnings as far back as 12 years old. There is no excuse. It’s us. It’s all on us. Btw, we’re well past that tired “Weather is not climate” line. If it was 1980 the weather would be much more pleasant. Why’s that?

The Fort McMurray Wildfire Isn’t ‘Ironic.’ This Is How Climate Change Works

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-isnt-ironic-this-is-how-climate-change-works

Apneaman on Fri, 6th May 2016 2:25 pm 



shortonoil, so your logic is because climate change happened prior to industrial civilization then it means it’s impossible that humans can ever ever do anything to affect it? Faulty logic and that meme comes straight out of denier central and has Christian undertones. And it’s wrong. Why not talk about the many other examples of life destroying climate change? Why only ever mention the younger dryas? Why not discuss the many extinction events on the planet and what mechanisms triggered them? How about an in depth discussion on the previous 5 mass extinction events? short, what is one mechanism that the geo chemical record clearly shows they all have in common? You must remembered since I have linked many peer reviewed papers and explainer articles breaking it down over the last 2 years. Maybe you did not read them since you made up your mind years ago? Let me remind you. CO2. CO2 released by volcanisim. Large indigenous provinces. shorty, can you think of anything that might be releasing similar amounts of CO2 (only faster) for, I don’t know, say the last 250 years? C’mon little shorty, I know you can do it if you try – being so fucking smart and all.

Either you are intellectually incapable of understanding the evidence or you are lying by repeatedly presenting just one tiny example of earths history, a geological blink, and claiming it proves things it does not. Case closed and all that. We all know how smart you are so you must be a damn lair then. I’m going with liar – shortontruth. Intentionally misleading others. Doesn’t do much for your credibility pertaining to peak oil now does it?

The reality is humans are going bye bye because they have radically altered the carbon cycle, the hydrologic cycle, the nutrient cycle, ocean acidafication and loads of other shit that is detrimental to their basic biological needs. Nothing new under the sun. It’s just that this time the trigger is a rapacious troop of arrogant apes. Oh and the scale and speed is unprecedented – no “natural” process ever came close to us on that. Never has the earth seen this much change this fast.

You are one of many white boy engineering denier/minamizer types that have been playing the same old cherry picked cards for decades and clinging to the younger dryas and example like Linus to his security blanket.

Go play with your oil model shorty – you’re just another fucking sad Yankee denier conflating shit to assuage your guilt.

Anonymous on Fri, 6th May 2016 2:26 pm 



I think the Irony of seeing km after km of idling oil-powered ‘cars’, trying to escape the sacrifice zone is lost on a lot of people. uS controlled strip-mining to turn tar into sort-of-oil, for what again?

To put into the tanks of uS manufactured ‘cars’. Currently being used to escape the side-effects (massive wildfire) caused by uS tar-sands mining’s emissions by driving to Edmonton. Btw, that method of evacuation is SO efficient, it will take 4 days to get 500 people, out of Fort McTarsnds pop of 89k. Local corporate media has endless shots of cars carrying a few people each sitting around with their hands in their pockets waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

Evacuees needless to say, are running out of gas all over the place trying to escape the consequence of uS oil extraction in their Alberta energy colony.

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/05/04/news/fort-mcmurray-evacuation-running-out-gas-everything-left-behind

Like I say, If those people weren’t so busy fleeing for their lives, or worrying about the ATV’s and flatscreen TV’s left behind, they might find the whole situation even more surreal than it is now.

paulo1 on Fri, 6th May 2016 3:20 pm 



Ap,

The fire I mentioned above had started May 12th. My first day of work was May 15th. This was 300 miles farther north than Ft Mac. Seems pretty much the same to me. Several broke out on the outskirts of Watson Lake that week…less than 5 km away. An Airspray bomber went down on one of the fires…pilot killed. It happens.

Farther north we reported any fires we saw and they were charted on a map…and then left to burn. Nowadays, this is all covered by satelite, but not then. However, they are still left to burn as there is no way to contain them and no reason to do so unless it is to try and protect settlement or a park. Usually, fires are left to burn even in parks.

People drive ICE cars, they burn oil products. People drive EV, they need oil products to build them and maintain them. Drive on roads, use transit? Requires oil products. Walk? Your runners required oil products as likely did your clothing and food used for energy.

Anonymous, I find your comments fatuous and ignorant. The people you deride are just trying to make a living and probably are just bright enough to reflect the values of the society they live in. Ft Mac is a hole, as far as I’m concerned, (or was). So is a place like Stockton, or Roseburg. Sometimes a flatscreen and/or case of beer might be the only thing worth doing when it’s too cold, buggy, hot, whatever. These are working guys/families on the defensive, trying to justify what they do with their lives by being defensive. It comes out as aggresive, certainly ignorant. Hell, I knew a hunting outfitter who thought Greenpeace was behind every piece of their clients lost luggage. Try and remember, when you smugly chirp about people losing everything, including thousands of pets and cherished family items, your attitude merely suggests how shitty you appear to others.

Where is your humanity and compassion? It certainly isn’t present in your remarks.

regardingpo on Fri, 6th May 2016 3:47 pm 



“You should have seen the forest fire that took place 14,000 years ago during the Younger-Dryas Event.”

Ah yes, I remember it. It was glorious.

marmico on Fri, 6th May 2016 4:59 pm 



Notley, your doing a hecka of a job. Not a single lost life.

The Alberta Premier is working 24…

shortonoil on Fri, 6th May 2016 5:11 pm 



“shortonoil, so your logic is because climate change happened prior to industrial civilization then it means it’s impossible that humans can ever ever do anything to affect it?”

reprint:

“05/05/16 PO News
Peak Oil Could Hit In Just 14 Years, But It Might Not Be What You Think

“As to your point #5, Investor, methane is 80 times more powerful a GHG and we are in the process of releasing innumerable gigitons of the unbenign flatulence in the defrosting Artic currently.And once it starts it will literally take our collective breath away.”

Methane production, along with CO2 are effects not causes. Burning fossil fuels dumps 67% as much heat into the environment each year as the world’s oceans adsorb (419 quad BTU vs 631.9 quad BTU). The world’s oceans are heating up at a rate of 1 °F every 32 years.

http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/

This is analogous to putting a fire under a pot of water on the stove. Regardless of what the impact of Green House gas are, as long as the world uses the tremendous amount of energy that it does, the world will continue to heat up. A high energy life style for 7.2 billion people on this planet is simply not possible.”

There is something that can be done, and will be done. We will cease existing in what is referred to as a Modern 21 firt century life style. It is not an IF – but a when.

marmico on Fri, 6th May 2016 5:28 pm 



$12 oil in 2020, says the quart shy of oil. Yippee.

Apneaman on Fri, 6th May 2016 5:43 pm 



Anyone who wishes can look at the data for themselves. Same deal throughout the great norther boreal belt – Alaska, Canada, Sweden Russia….

THE AGE OF ALASKAN
WILDFIRES

“Alaska, the great northern frontier of America, is being reshaped by climate change. While rising
temperatures are altering its character and landscape, they are also bringing the ravages of
wildfires.
In the past 60 years, Alaska has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the country, with
average temperatures up by nearly 3°F. By 2050, temperatures are projected to climb an additional
2-4 degrees, with the Arctic region seeing the most dramatic increases. These rising temperatures
are expected to increase wildfire risks in Alaska, just as they have in the rest of the western U.S.
Wildfires have been on the rise across the western U.S. since the 1970s, at the same time that
spring and summer temperatures have increased dramatically, and average spring snowpack has
declined substantially.
Fires in Alaska don’t often make news in the lower 48, but they threaten vast expanses of forest,
parkland, and tundra that store immense quantities of carbon. The state’s growing number of large
wildfires have the potential to damage these ecosystems, and the people and wildlife that depend
on them, while releasing a significant amount of carbon into the atmosphere, further contributing
to global warming. Wildfire emissions over these vast areas also threaten air quality in Alaska and
beyond.
Our analysis of 65 years of Alaska wildfire data shows:
• The number of large wildfires (larger than 1,000 acres) suddenly increased in the
1990s, and the 2000s saw nearly twice as many large wildfires as the 1950s and 60s.
SUMMARY Annual Average Number of Large Wild
fires

Alaska Wildfires Have Increased Dramatically Since 1990”

more

http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/AgeofAlaskanWildfires.pdf

marmico on Fri, 6th May 2016 6:14 pm 



Shit, can’t you show the Russian Bahzenov, where they can frack the shit out of the humongous oil bearing source rock, and send it to the Sinos for manufacture into a microwave oven for basement apartment dwellers in Abbotsford with both thumbs stuck up their ass.

North America is a fossil fuel and grain fortress, burnt boreal forest or not. Better get the big pipe going from the Athabasca to Houston. The Alaska and Williston pipes will be mere drips in 10 years. I’m not sure how the TRUMP WALL will play out. Does the natural gas go over or under the wall?

Apneaman on Fri, 6th May 2016 6:15 pm 



marmi, for 2 years all I’ve seen from you is the same two or three lines. Could you be more unoriginal? No wonder you don’t have a woman.

You make boat look like a Jeopardy champion next to you.

You kind of remind me of one of those snappy little rat dogs I’d like to kick a field goal with.

Apneaman on Fri, 6th May 2016 6:16 pm 



Better

Brent on Fri, 6th May 2016 8:49 pm 



I was just thinking as I watching the video what if all the gas stations were shut down? It might be just me but lots of gas stations around my town are starting to go out of business.

Kenz300 on Mon, 9th May 2016 10:25 am 



Canadian tar sands are some of the costliest and dirtiest of fossil fuels……………they are part of the Climate Change problem………..

Climate Change is real and we will all be impacted by it………

Maybe this is Mother Nature sending a message to the tar sands folks……………

The solar industry is growing throughout the world and is providing growth in the jobs of the future…….without damage to the Climate.