Hundreds of firefighters continue to battle a massive wildfire that forced more than 80,000 residents to flee from Fort McMurray and the surrounding area last week.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued on May 3 after strong winds pushed the fire towards the northern Alberta community.
Despite facing an 鈥渙cean of fire,鈥� somehow only about 10 per cent of the city was destroyed, leaving most of its critical infrastructure intact.
About 2,400 structures were completely razed by the fire while 25,000 others were spared 鈥� including every functioning school, the hospital and many municipal buildings, according to Premier Rachel Notley who toured the city on May 9.
By comparison, 30 per cent of Slave Lake was demolished during the 2011 wildfire.
Nobody was killed in the fire, but two people died in a car crash when they were leaving the city.
At the height of the evacuation order, 25,000 people were forced to go north of the city to take refuge in oil sands camps. With dwindling supplies and fears the fire could spread further north, the
RCMP safely escorted those people south towards Edmonton over the course of four days. Another 4,000 people were evacuated by plane.
Military aircraft along with 26 helicopters and 28 air tankers are helping firefighters on the ground try and contain the fire which is burning out of control and is now more than 1,600 square kilometres鈥搇arger than the size of Edmonton.
Thirteen evacuation centres have been opened across the province and a provincial wide fire ban is in effect. A fire ban is not in effect for Jasper National Park, although fires must be in a designated fire pit.
The province has also banned people using off-highway vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), four-wheel vehicles and dirt bikes, all of which are banned in Jasper National Park.
On May 4, a province wide state of emergency was declared and two days later the province announced $100 million in financial support for evacuees, including $1,250 per adult and $500 per dependent.
The federal government and the provincial government have also promised to match donations to the Red Cross dollar-for-dollar essentially tripling every donation.
As of press time there were 25 fires across the province, although 23 of those were under control.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
