Fort McMurray mandatory evac

[DanWEC]

Must be terrifying for the residents. Recent photos show the fire right along 63 along the evac route.
Positive thoughts for all residents, and all those fighting on the ground and in air attack.

[7ECA]

Reminds me of Slave Lake fire in 2011. Shocking to think this is happening this early in the season.

[AvExpress]

I don't see the airport shut down, just the tower notamed closed. Has any airline been offering evac services?

[John Desramaux]

Link to Tweet of fire plum from the air....
https://twitter.com/Cass403/status/727666966614278144
Link to Tweet from Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo initial damage assessment
https://twitter.com/RMWoodBuffalo/statu ... 6203981824

[co-joe]

Apparently he entire hospital got evacuated. Must have been a busy day for the medevac fleet.

[Chris M]

Apparently he entire hospital got evacuated. Must have been a busy day for the medevac fleet.

The Premier just mentioned that WJ flew the patients out.

[5400AirportRdSouth]

Alberta Health chartered at least one WJ 737 for ambulatory patient evacuations. Trust me though, the entire medevac fleet and then some were busy all night taking stretcher patients.

[CDN106]

I don't see the airport shut down, just the tower notamed closed. Has any airline been offering evac services?

Canadian North is filling planes out of Albian/Horizon with workers and people fleeing their homes. Running a full schedule today. Cariboo doing the same, also saw an Air North bird up there

[pollyperkins]

WJ sent 8 rescue flights last night to Firebag and is continuing with extra flights today. Encore is flying in empty a/c to YMM to extract as many out.

[TheStig]

25 years of financially starving the Armed Forces, and we're now seeing the results. 2 Days to reach the sit of a domestic natural disaster despite its close proximity to Cold Lake.

Thoughts are with everyone in the region.

[Kitzbuhel]

25 years of financially starving the Armed Forces, and we're now seeing the results. 2 Days to reach the sit of a domestic natural disaster despite its close proximity to Cold Lake.

Thoughts are with everyone in the region.

Another ignorant comment... Why do you think it took two days? Do you think they call the military for every small problem in case it develops into something bigger? Once they were called they met their mandated response time. Which isn't 48h.

[plhought]

Re: The Military,

If one had bothered to watch the latest briefing, they had the Commander of Land Forces West in the emerg. Ops centre. Their is two Griffons in Conklin to assist first responder movements and evac should they need. A Herc (J model) is tasked to begin moving food/water/whatever either beginning tonight or tomorrow morning. The General and Alberta Emerg. Management agreed that sending military boots on the ground wasn't prudent at the moment, as they are not trained wildfire or structural firefighters.

Just want to give a big props to the Navcanada crew and all the airport workers, who kept operating the airport through all this chaos. Yesterday afternoon when things were quickly getting out of hand, they were still running the airspace like pros.

[TheStig]

Thanks. What other ignorant comments do you feel have been made? Maybe you can inform me then, what is the response time we can expect in instances of natural disasters?

I'm not blaming anyone in the Military, I'm blaming the Federal Government. As a taxpayer I'd be happy to see my money used to properly fund the Armed Forces. Protecting Canadian home and abroad has been treated as a back burner issue for too long.

It's been inspiring to see how quickly both the major airlines and oil companies jump into action providing transportation and accommodations for those in need.

[Old fella]

Be thankful none of those hard working folks/families lost their lives........

[iflyforpie]

Yep.... people are losing their homes.... and yet it still has to be about dirty politics.

[timel]

Quebec is sending airplanes (4 water bombers) to help with the fire. No risks of fire here. Hopefully it gets under control very soon!

[plhought]

The fire has pretty much reached the airport.



Not gonna be a good night.

Webcam section on AWWS is down.

[DanWEC]

Well it hasn't reached the airport till it's reached the airport. Vis has been been 1-2 miles. Luckily by its very nature an airport is a good fire break as long as the structures are safe.
Stay strong out there boy n girls.

[Koalemos]

@TheStig
Your reaction is being questioned as you made a vague statement damning the federal government based on your opinion of military funding with no specifics or useful information. It comes across as political noise, finger pointing. Would having 10 Hercs and Chinooks sit in Cold Lake 24/7 in case there's a need to evacuate in Alberta have helped? I doubt it. Most people will want to drive out so they can take belongings, and won't leave until the last minute anyways. The province/local levels of governments sent out the necessary evacuation notices (radio, TV, internet, etc) and EMS and Police forces did what they had to do. People drove or went in buses, gas tankers were brought in to provide fuel for stranded motorists. The government and military are organizing airlifts of supplies to refugee camps at the various oil company sites that have strips, and a Herc and transport helicopters are either in Cold Lake, or on standby to be used as required.

The following link is to one of many articles floating around, and has an interview with a military official giving info on how they have/are responding.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau ... 23?cmp=rss

Thankfully, we haven't heard of any fatalities so far. This is an extremely difficult situation to manage. This is the Provincial government's show, in coordination with other levels of governments and agencies. Could they have been more proactive? Maybe in a few months time they'll have that answer in hindsight. So far tho, it sounds like its going as best as can be expected given the situation and how fast it developed.

[John Desramaux]

Picture from Twitter of Albian Sands AB last night

https://twitter.com/bulldogaviation/sta ... 3814887424