McMurray Fires

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Follow the latest tweets here. Stay safe up there, my friends.

45 Replies to “McMurray Fires”

  1. YIKES! Be safe, people in Fort McMurray. Prayers going out for you.

  3. We can be sure that all the cuts were made at the ‘pointy end of the stick’ that actually fights the fires and that no bureaucrat jobs at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry were endangered.

  4. All my hopes for the safety of my Albertan friends and neighbors currently in harms way.
    That last pic is horrifying.

  6. Yiikes ! Reminds me of the Oakland Hills fire, where residents got trapped and pinned-in by a swirling FIRE fed by high winds.
    In the Fire isn’t Climate category … The Warmists LOVE every wildfire that they always BLAME on Global Warming (not lightening strikes or arson) … nope … your sins against Gaia set fires. Then the Global Warmist observant Fire Departments let the fires RAGE. Thus “proving” the horrors of Global Warming.
    Be SAFE, my Nothern friends !

  7. News getting worse: thoughts and prayers with the residents of Fort Mac and those fighting the fires. Praying hard for minimum damage to the town.

  9. BTW – where’s Greenpeace, anyone see them lurking around the area?
    It’s a good thing that Rachel & Justin will house all of Fort Mac’s homeless like they did the “Syrian Refugee’s”! ……Heh just kidding these are hard working “dirty oil” family’s, at best the Syrian’s can give them scraps if they convert.
    Just remember to take your guns folks, if their not destroyed by fire you can be assured that the RCMP will kick in any remaining structures and take them.
    Never forget Alberta Martial Law 2013.

  10. Hopefully no lives lost and limited property losses for McMurray.
    However, obviously nothing was learnt from Slave Lake.
    Same up here.
    Number one potential disaster is forest fire.
    the only plausible threat.
    Yet we must not cut down the fingers of forest growing on common land.
    save the boreal trees.
    City Council and their minions do nothing.
    Surrounded by forest,we are prohibited from doing prevention work that saved our parents properties.
    Every part of the city has fuel trails growing out to the wild,untrimmed,uncleared,unwatched.
    Literally the stupid it burns.

  11. Five years since the Slave Lake fire, and nothing learned. Little late to be knocking trees down now.
    Politicians knuckling under to environmental wackos have allowed this to happen. In the old days, tars and feathers would have been in vogue.

  13. Our thoughts and prayers to all the people there.
    Isn’t the shutting down of Fort McMurray what Trudeau and Notley, along with Suzuki and sundry other scum wanted?
    Hopefully the Fire Marshals do a thorough job of discovering the trail of the fire’s source.

  15. I should have written:
    “and amateur radio is on standby in the Fort McMurray area”

  16. A very scary situation. But, on Monday morning CTV Canada AM news at 8:00 a.m. had two other ‘stories’ including the Toronto Raptors winning a basketball game ahead of the fires threatening this Alberta city. Another pathetic example of the MSM not understanding what news Canadians really want to know something about.
    A effin’ basketball game had more import than forest fires threatening a large city?!?!?

  17. The emergency net’s been closed down for the night. If I heard correctly, the only amateur radio activity in the Fort Mac area is sporadic outbound traffic on IRLP.

  18. “We have to stop at 9pm because of provincial regulations, so we’re pushing through until then.”
    So, firefighters have to clock out at 9pm?
    Could one of you nice Albertans explain that to we Yanks?

  19. Should be noted that CKUA Radio is “listener sponsored”. We sponsor. Listen a lot.

  20. According to the latest update from CKUA, all of Fort McMurray is under mandatory evacuation, though the airport remains open.

  22. Exactly right Knight. They better remove their guns and ammo when they evacuate as the Mounties will be in to appropriate said items in the name of public safety. Never let a crisis go to waste!

  23. The best protection against any bush fire is to clear the trees out before they burn. Not to mention that the land can then be used for development. Check out Google Earth and see how close the tree line is to most parts of the city of Fort Mac. One thing good about the fire. The trees are now cleared out.

  24. I’m hearing the camps are filling up with evacuees. 100000 people are in the evacuation zone I pray everyone gets out. Stories of people running out of gas on the highway out. This is unprecedented.

  25. Check the Edmonton Sun’s website for pictures. It’s like a war zone there.

  27. when people are in danger of losing their homes and their lives you can count on the government doing what they always do, screw things up even more. I hope no one dies in this disaster.

  28. If you check the news on Facebook there are a lot of greenies enjoying this. Tar sands, pipelines, global warming etc. Would really love to kick the crap out of some of these people.
    Lots of people need new homes, food, jobs etc. The liberals will get to them right after they look after our new muslim refugees.

  29. In the face of such great loss of property and potential (haven’t heard of any yet) loss of life it is hard to think of much beyond be safe and yet I can’t help but comment on our political leaders. The PM’s message was basically ‘listen to your nannies’. The premier’s message was ‘I feel so bad I will let my experts talk’ And the leader of the oppostion who lives in the area and whose house was reportedly on fire ‘We are a strong people. We will rebuild better and stronger than before’. Only one of these three is a leader anyone care to pick which one?

  30. Times like this I always find myself wondering whatever happened to Troy Hurtubuises’ firepaste.

  32. Just witnessed JT message on the disaster, delivered to his Liberal caucus of all places. It included a fare amount of tittering and joking from these people, and Jr as usual had his sleeves rolled up. (As an aside, why doesn’t he simply but short sleeved shirts?)
    The whole address lacked the gravitas required for such an occasion; the message I certainly got was that it was unfortunate but not a disaster.

  33. Some day the idiots in charge might want to consider a half mile cleared buffer around towns and cities built in the forest. I’m not sure if home insurance in Alberta will be sustainable given that we like to burn down a city every 5 years.

  35. “As an aside, why doesn’t he simply buy short sleeved shirts?”
    Come on now, silly.
    How can our Sunny Leader project the image of I’m-rolling-up-my-sleeves-to-get-to-work-on-all-your-problems if he doesn’t have sleeves to roll up?

  36. The image goes back to Kennedy brothers, about a decade at least before Jr was born. Of all his mannerisms, it is just one of the most irritating. I still cannot abide listening to him talk, not that I give it much practice.

  37. How long before the Clown Prince goes to Fort Mac for his mandatory “comfort” selfies and his empty “I stand with you, I feel your pain” platitude-filled speeches?

  38. So, when did these fires start & where in relation to the current subdivisions going up in smoke? Cause? Not a peep from any media I’ve seen on this subject, just a lot of shrieking “FIRE!…..run for your lives”. From what I’ve watched it seems like the fires just appeared out of the blue as “…people had only 30 minutes to evacuate”. Really? Ive seen fires rip along at 10km an hour with a good wind, but you can usually see those ones coming & plan ahead. What was Forestry doing on the subject?
    I’ve spent decades in the bush, in multiple provinces & territories. Fires just don’t appear out of the blue, they are visible for miles, for days. The only one that ever appeared out of the blue once, was a lightning strike on the opposite side of the lake our camp was on, mid afternoon & windy. We had it put down by 6 am next morning…working the fire line at night & with the aid of one Canso bomber, a couple of fire pumps & piss packs. We were only 6 guys, drill crew was evacuated. When we ran out of hose & water was too far to pack, we stomped it out with our boots & grub hoes. Wind generally dies down with nightfall & the best time to whack a fire down is night-time.
    Back drilling the next day.

  39. If they make you evacuate, take your guns, set out bear trap and lock the doors.
    Good luck to you in surviving another K-division purge of gun owners during a disaster.

  40. Okay, here I am stuck just north of Fort McMurray. I did manage to get into work last night, but that’s because I stay in camp. Only another guy on our team made it in, the others were evacuated south. The roads heading North were a mess with cars passing on the shoulders and many pulled over(probably a lack of gas and no clear direction)
    Here is the scuttle butt that I picked up at work.
    Company fire equipment was not called upon until mid afternoon, that in spite of the fact that these companies possess some of the finest fire fighting equipment in the country with crews very well trained. The last time the town requested this equipment it was provided free of charge. Read into that what you wish.
    Several of the districts in Fort Mc. suffered sever damage, but so far no fatalities. This could change as no complete searches have been undertaken and people may have been missed. The fire did spread rapidly, with very little notice. People pulled their children out of school only a short time before the fire hit.
    I heard that the hospital has been burned but that isn’t for sure. There are anywhere from 10 to 18 thousand people being put up in camps north of town. I am about 20km away and the air is quite acrid. I cut short my workout this morning as the air quality in our gym was not so great. It’s a little better in my room. I am supposed to be on days off, but since the roads are on again, off again, I plan to stay and work. It’s not what I prefer to do but it is probably safer at work than in camp as there are a lot less combustibles at work.
    The power was out in town yesterday, and those gas stations still operating ran out of gas.
    So fuel, water and food will be priorities for the next little while.
    This little fire will have a very drastic affect on the Canadian economy. The town is really needed to sustain the oil sands, not only housing but shops and services so we can expect output to be a lot less than normal.
    As for the cause, well we haven’t had any lightning, but what we do have are a lot of ATV’s with idiots going for a ride in the very dry bush, so campfire, discarded cigarette butt, or hot exhaust pipe. Take your pick. Mine is on the exhaust pipe.
    Oh well, time to get some shuteye. Hopefully it gets better from here, but if the winds are really bad, we could lose the entire town. Here’s hoping for the best.

  41. “If they make you evacuate, take your guns, set out bear trap and lock the doors.”
    I suspect they will be finding a few casualties from people that didn’t want to leave their homes because the cops would be booting down their front doors doing illegal searches.

  42. The pictures of the flames sure highlight the hubris.
    Every single one of these political asshats take the same meme,we can fight these fires.
    Really can’t cure this kind of stupid.
    We can delay the spread of the flames,providing we have in place adequate fire breaks and trained equipped people.
    A full throttle forest fire can not be fought, managed or beaten.
    Must be the same city dwellers who think we control the weather.
    Pray for rain and a wind shift.

  44. To the people of Alberta:
    My family and I are hoping for the best for all of you. May God bless you all!! From Saskatchewan with love.
    Signed
    The Plainzfyre.
    PS: I chose the name Plainzfyre on SDA because the first thing that happened to my Grandad when he arrived here, he lost a barn and a wagon when a prairie fire swept across his home quarter. 110 years later, we’re still around!

  45. PLainzfyre – and you’re lucky that’s all he lost. Prairie fires could be and were killers.

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