Huge Canada fire slowed but not out

09 พฤษภาคม 2559

You could fit the whole city of Bangkok (1,568 sq.km) inside the area already burned in the wildfire engulfing the Fort McMurray area in Alberta Canada. Improving weather has slowed, but not stopped the massive inferno.

You could fit the whole city of Bangkok (1,568 sq.km) inside the area already burned in the wildfire engulfing the Fort McMurray area in Alberta Canada. Improving weather has slowed, but not stopped the massive inferno.

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Canada fires now advancing more slowly

Raging forest fires that prompted the evacuation of an entire Canadian city were advancing more slowly Sunday thanks to a change in the weather and oil facilities have escaped major damage, officials said.

In other good news, the amount of land charred was less than originally feared. And the last of 25,000 people trapped north of Fort McMurray in Alberta province have now been evacuated in road convoys through the ruined oil city.

Alberta premier Rachel Notley and other officials said the fires raging for days around Fort McMurray were moving "much, much more slowly" thanks to a bit of rain and cooler temperatures.

Authorities had expressed fear the fire could spread east to Saskatchewan province. But Notley said the worst fears from Saturday had not been realised, at least not yet.

The fire's eastern edge was still 40 kilometers from Saskatchewan and estimates of the area destroyed have been lowered from 2,000 square kilometers to about 1,600.

The ruthless blaze, fanned by high winds and fueled by tinder-dry conditions, devastated Fort McMurray and the region around it. The city was home to 100,000 people until it was evacuated last week as flames burned homes to the ground amid scenes of panic and mass exodus.

Chad Morrison, senior wildfire manager for Alberta, said Sunday that "with a little help from mother nature and a bit of a break in the weather," along with the hard work of some 500 firefighters, most fire lines in Fort McMurray had been contained.

The threat to oil-sand mines, vital to the regional economy, had also diminished at least for now, he said.

Morrison said firefighters hoped that rains and cooler temperatures predicted for Monday and winds from the west, gusting up to 60 kilometers per hour should help keep the flames away from the petroleum work camps in coming days.

Even as fellow Canadians rally to provide them succor and support, thousands of evacuees who fled the fire are coming to grips with the likelihood that they will be unable to see their homes anytime soon – assuming the dwellings are still standing at all.

Hundreds of firefighters, exhausted and demoralised after days vainly battling a blaze they grimly refer to as "the beast," acknowledged that they will probably have to wait for the fire to burn itself out.

With huge swathes of forest and brush, as well as whole neighbourhoods of the city, turned to ash – an area three-quarters the size of Luxembourg – firefighters battling the blaze are concentrating on saving vital infrastructure, including telecommunications, electric grids, gas and water lines.

Rescue crews and police have been guarding the city, but it will be days before workers can begin clearing damaged or destroyed structures and before some residents can begin to move back into those areas spared by the inferno.

Notley said late Saturday that gas lines had been cut, the electric grid damaged and a large part of the city had neither electricity nor drinkable water