A state of emergency has been declared in the province of Alberta in Canada after a wildfire forced all 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray to flee.
Officials say the fast-moving blaze could destroy much of the city.
The fire, which broke out on Sunday in the heart on the country's oil sands region, has gutted 1,600 buildings, including a new school.
The evacuation was the largest-ever in Alberta. Oil companies operating in the area have been forced to cut output.
Several firms have shut down some pipelines. This was done to help evacuate non-essential personnel, reports say, but oil facilities are not in the current path of the fire.
So far there have been no reports of deaths or injuries, but two women gave birth in one evacuation centre, Reuters new agency reported.

What residents witnessed
Resident Neil Scott told the BBC: "It was something you'd see in a movie probably. I was stuck between a concrete barrier and the fire and I though 'You know what? I might not make it out'.
"There's whole neighbourhoods that are gone. A hotel burned down, a gas station exploded. One lady that I met she actually was sheltered behind like an electrical box when it actually exploded and she felt a shockwave."

"You could hear the pop, pop, pop because of the propane tanks," Doug Sulliman, a former professional ice hockey player, told Associated Press. "The fire was just consuming these houses. It just destroyed the whole community."

The night sky above Fort McMurray is illuminated by a fierce orange glow as fires continue to burn to the north and to the south.
Above the flat landscape of Alberta's famous oil sands is a towering plume of smoke; a giant pyrocumulus cloud so big that it resembles ash from an erupting volcano and has even generated its own lightning.
As we drove north towards the city, hundreds of residents passed us, fleeing to the south, many towing trailers containing as many belongings as they could pack.
We also passed a fleet of yellow school buses, bound for the town of Anzac and its neighbouring communities, on a mission to rescue the latest people to be threatened by the fast-moving flames.
Fort McMurray itself is sealed off to all but the emergency services but it is reportedly a scene of devastation.
One police officer who lives and patrols in the city told the BBC that, in his assessment, around half of it had been destroyed.

Experts have identified a number of factors combining to devastating effect to create the fire.
The El Nino weather system has led to drier than normal conditions in Alberta and neighbouring Saskatchewan. Unseasonably high temperatures and strong winds have combined with those conditions to leave much of those provinces under an extreme fire risk warning.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said people should not conclude climate change was to blame.
"It's well known that one of the consequences of climate change will be a greater prevalence of extreme weather events around the planet," he said.
"However, any time we try to make a political argument out of one particular disaster…that can sometimes not have the desired outcome."
How authorities have reacted
Bernie Schmitte, an official at Alberta's agriculture ministry, said on Wednesday that the "catastrophic fire" had so far "resisted all suppression methods".
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the blaze had moved north and east across Fort McMurray. The state of emergency would allow Alberta to apply for federal funds to help the recovery, she said.
First Nation communities 50km (30 miles) south of the city were given mandatory evacuation orders on Wednesday.


Officials said the size of the blaze was now more than 10,000 hectares (39 square miles) and it was being tackled by 100 firefighters.
Ms Notley praised Albertans for helping neighbours in need.
"We will get through this and we will come out stronger on the other side," she said.

The weather is expected to cool across Fort McMurray from Thursday.
But, if the winds behave as predicted, Ms Notley said, the blaze could move into the Thickwood and Timberlea communities, as well as the area around the airport.
"Bad news does not get better with time," said Scott Long, executive director of Alberta's Emergency Management Agency.
"It is a possibility that we may lose a large portion of the town," he added. So far, he said, downtown Fort McMurray had been spared by the "herculean" work of firefighters.
Fort McMurray: Canada's 'manliest' city
On its tourism website, Fort McMurray describes itself as the "gateway to the north" - a region which is home to the third largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
It may be remote, but Fort McMurray's proximity to Canada's rich oil sands has helped it to become a hugely prosperous place, drawing oil workers from across the world.
It is not strictly speaking a city, but such has become Fort McMurray's importance in the region that it is commonly referred to as one.
Canada's National Post called Fort McMurray "Canada's manliest city" where men outnumber women by roughly three to two.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Hopefully they manage to get it contained soon. I wonder how it's affecting the wildlife?

Canadian officials are airlifting some 8,000 people who fled north of Fort McMurray - the city which has been devastated by a massive wildfire.
They also hope that the only motorway to the south will become safe on Friday to move the remaining 17,000 people, who are in danger of becoming trapped.
The entire city - more than 88,000 people - was evacuated three days ago. Most fled south but some went north.
The fire in the province of Alberta has grown to 850 sq km (328.2 sq miles).
Hundreds of firefighters are battling the blaze using helicopters and air tankers.
The fire, which covers an area almost the size of Calgary, Alberta's largest city, has slowed down and is now heading away from Fort McMurray.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warned city residents that they were facing a long wait before they would be able to return home.
The blaze has already destroyed more than 1,600 homes and other buildings in Fort McMurray.
A rare province-wide fire ban has been declared to try to reduce risk of further blazes.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
88,000 evacuated, a whoe city?

That's pretty dreadful. Good work by the emergency services.

 jhe90 wrote:
You sometimes forget how big Canada is too.

It's a enormous country and you cannot just get people and machine about without effert.

Next up Canadian military lending a hand? More gear and people to clear fire breaks and such.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
88,000 evacuated, a whoe city?

That's pretty dreadful. Good work by the emergency services.

All levels of government were actually pretty terrible at dealing with the seriousness of the situation & handling the evacuation...

Kids for example were still told to go to school on Tuesday morning, despite fire officials becoming concerned that the fire & weather conditions were rip for disaster! The city wasn't ordered to be cleared until later in the afternoon, once the fire was already within the outer limits of the hardest hit areas.
The fething provincial government didn't even declare an official state of emergency until well *after* Fort Mac had already been evacuated!

The emergency & first responders are probably the only reason there haven't been any deaths yet due to the fire. However, there were iirc, 2 fatalities due to a traffic collision during the evacuation.

But the situation with getting people out should never have gotten as insane as it did... Municiple & Provincial officials only needed to stay on top of the local weather reports to know that Tuesday was going to be a gakstorm in the making, and they could have easily given the clear-out orders first thing in the morning. (or at the very least, ordered all schools & business to shutter for day and people to pack-up and be ready to move in case the worst happens)

 jhe90 wrote:
You sometimes forget how big Canada is too.

It's a enormous country and you cannot just get people and machine about without effert.

Next up Canadian military lending a hand? More gear and people to clear fire breaks and such.

The Canadian military is trained to fight up to a Level 3 wildfire. The Wood Buffalo fire is a Level 6 - the highest the ranking goes. (honestly, I didn't realise this until after reading up more it!)
Thus, putting troops on the ground to help firefighters in this case would be a catastrophically bad idea, as we'd be risking the safety of everyone involved, and the troops would just be getting in the way rather than helping.

The military right now is lending what air support they can, and if still needed, the troops can still be called upon once the fire is more under control.


What they need out there though is;
1. Rain! And sadly, there's no significant rain in the long range forecast.
2. Cooler tempts and the winds to go feth off! Unfortunately, it starts warming up again for the next couple of days, but the reports last night were predicting slightly lower winds.

Still, it's going to be weeks before the fire is brought under control, though as long as the winds continue to come from the west or northwest, that should move the fire away from Fort Mac. (if they get southerly winds though, it could fan the flames right back at the city.)

Here's the local forecast for those interested: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/alberta/fort-mcmurray

Experiment 626 wrote:






A couple videos shot by residents as they fled for their lives during the city-wide evacuation.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

Experiment 626 wrote:






A couple videos shot by residents as they fled for their lives during the city-wide evacuation.

Holy feth thats terrifying.

How dangerous is it to get that close to the fires? Are you safe on the roads? (well, besides the danger of smoke inhalation). Is that close enough to burn you? (one guy in a car says "I can feel the heat from here"). Is there a danger of cars and gas tanks catching fire from the ambient heat and stray embers?

 Frazzled wrote:
Supposedly over 30 water dropping aircraft on scene now. Any word if any of those are US, and specifically if they are the big KC tankers? The one that came over the house to drop I swear was only about 200 feet off the dock and when dropped...FROOOOM!

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Let's wait until the fire runs its course as well. For all we know it could criss-cross over the city a number of times.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
I read an article from a former resident that says we should oppose rebuilding the city itself. I'm not sure if his numbers check out or not, but his figures are that we estimate the oil patch will be dry around 2050, and that the barrel's price won't go back up to where it is profitable until the 2040s.

To be clear, he's not saying we shouldn't help those people, he did have a scathing insight into local culture and "problems", but he's not saying we should abandon those evacuees.