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Wildfire Nears Canada’s Major Oil Sands Plants

May 18, 2016

Wildfire Nears Canada’s Major Oil Sands Plants

Alberta Wildfires

A massive wildfire raging through the northern part of Alberta has swelled in size and surged north of Fort McMurray, destroying an evacuated oil sands camp on Tuesday and it is projected to encroach on major facilities shortly.

The flames consumed a 665-room oil-sands work camp north of the city, the Blacksands Executive Lodge, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday. The lodge is owned by Horizon North Logistics Inc. of Calgary.

Image courtesy of Nairaland.com

Officials said Wednesday they expected the fire to move east towards plants owned by Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) and its Syncrude subsidiary, CBC News reports. They added that the operations themselves are unlikely to be damaged by the flames as they are well isolated by wide barriers of cleared firebreak and gravel, and are employing their own firefighting crews.

Image courtesy of Nairaland.com

By 6:00 am local time Wednesday, the fire had grown to approximately 422,898 hectares in size.

“It’s pretty significant growth,” provincial wildfire official Travis Fairweather said in a televised interview with CBC. “We’ve just been seeing really extreme fire conditions over the last couple of days. It’s been really burning intensely and the winds have been carrying it.”

The wildfire, which destroyed whole sections of Fort McMurray earlier this month, is also expected to reach the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan.

Image © Cameron Strandberg | Flickr CC by 2.0

So far, it has forced more than 88,000 people to leave the area, with about 8,000 of them evacuating Monday night as the resurgent fire shifted directions, posing fresh threats to oil sands complexes and worker camps.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Welcome To Hell: The Giant Fort McMurray Fire Is The Worst Blaze In Canadian History

May 8, 2016

Welcome To Hell: The Giant Fort McMurray Fire Is The Worst Blaze In Canadian History

Fort McMurray Fire - Photo by DarrenRDThe gigantic wildfire that has forced the evacuation of the entire city of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta has been nicknamed “the Beast“, and mainstream news reports are telling us that it is now approximately 25 percent larger than New York City.  88,000 people have already been forced out of their homes, at least 1,600 buildings have been destroyed, and smoke from the fire has been spotted as far away as Iowa.  To say that this is a “disaster” is a massive understatement.  Northern Alberta is “tinder dry” right now, and authorities say that high winds could result in the size of the fire doubling by the end of the weekend.  One-fourth of Canada’s oil output has already been shut down, and the edge of the fire is now getting very close to the neighboring province of Saskatchewan.  This is already the most expensive natural disaster in the history of Canada, and officials fully expect to be fighting this blaze for months to come.

At this point, only rain is going to stop this fire.  Canadian authorities insist that they are not going to be able to defeat this raging inferno no matter how many resources they throw at it.  The best that they can hope for is to try to steer it away from heavily populated areas until the rain comes.

Nobody knows precisely how this tragedy is going to end, but everyone agrees that it is going to last for quite some time.  According to the Washington Post, this fire has the potential to keep on burning “for months”…

The images are ones of devastation — scorched homes, virtually whole neighborhoods burned to the ground. And Canadian officials say they expect to fight the massive wildfire that has destroyed large parts of Alberta’s oil sands town for months.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

A New Global Tinderbox: The World’s Northern Forests

October 2, 2015

A New Global Tinderbox: The World’s Northern Forests

Rapidly rising temperatures, changes in precipitation, and increased lightning strikes are leading to ever-larger wildfires in the northern forests of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia, with potentially severe ecological consequences.

Ted Schuur has spent the better part of his career making the connection between climate change and wildfires that are burning an increasing amount of land in Alaska and in sub-Arctic and Arctic forests around the world. So the Northern Arizona University scientist wasn’t all that surprised this summer to find his field stations in the interior of Alaska surrounded by fires on three sides. At the time, the state was well on track to recording its second-worst fire season ever.

Alaska Fire Service
Alaska experienced its second-worst fire season in recorded history this summer.

The surprise came in mid-summer when Schuur took a few days off from his research to attend a meeting in Colorado. He had hoped the trip would give him a break from Alaska’s noxious smoke. The smoke in Boulder, however, was so thick that the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment was advising parents with young children and people with heart disease and respiratory problems to limit their outdoor activities.

As Schuur soon learned, the pall of smoke in Denver had actually drifted down from a large number of forest fires in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this summer,” says Schuur. “It seemed like half the continent was on fire at one time or another.”

Schuur wasn’t exaggerating. In June, as many as 25,000 men and women were fighting thousands of wildfires that were burning out of control in states such as Alaska, Washington, California, and Idaho, and in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Logging Forests After Wildfires is Ecologically Destructive

October 1, 2015

Why Logging Forests After Wildfires is Ecologically Destructive

calspottedowl

California Spotted Owl. Photo: USFS.

When it comes to wildfire, the U.S. Forest Service has it all wrong. In its just-released plan to chop down trees in nearly 17,000 acres hit by last year’s King fire in the Eldorado National Forest – including logging in 28 occupied spotted owl territories – the agency trots out the same tired falsehoods.

First, the Forest Service claims burned areas must be logged and replanted to “restore” the forest. In truth, wildfire is natural and necessary in the Sierra Nevada, even fires that burn very hot over huge areas, and human interference after fires is harmful rather than helpful.

For thousands of years, big fires have burned in the Sierra Nevada and are as ecologically critical for native plants and animals as rain and snow. And the trees have always grown back on their own.

But before the trees grow back, the burned forests erupt with life. Black-backed woodpeckers thrive in the most charred forests, feasting on the superabundance of insects and creating nesting holes in the freshly dead trees. After the woodpeckers, mountain bluebirds and house wrens use the abandoned cavities to raise their own chicks.

Deer mice and gophers eat fire-exposed seeds and newly sprouting vegetation. These rodents are food for imperiled California spotted owls, who have been documented hunting in charcoal forests, using dead trees to perch upon and listen for their prey rustling below.

Which brings us to falsehood No. 2: that logging will help, not harm, the spotted owl. This has never been true.

Heavily burned forests are great hunting grounds for the owl, but studies have proven that post-fire logging causes owls to abandon their territories. This comes as no surprise, since wildfire is natural but people chopping down trees is not.

Logging is the real threat to owls. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees – recently the agency decided to consider listing the California spotted owl as endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, citing thinning and post-fire logging as primary threats to declining populations.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

With Climate Change, a Terrifying New Normal for Western Firefighters

August 11, 2015

With Climate Change, a Terrifying New Normal for Western Firefighters

In the last two decades, officials in Colorado have watched as massive, months-long wildfires have become a regular occurrence in their state. A Yale Environment 360 video goes onto the front lines with Colorado firefighters who describe what it’s like to continuously confront deadly blazes fueled by a hotter, drier climate.

To many people, climate change is a distant, abstract concept. But to the men and women who battle wildfires in Colorado and throughout the American West, evidence of a warming world is something they face on a daily basis. In recent years, these fire crews have fought blazes that are larger, more frequent, faster-moving, longer-lasting, and increasingly unpredictable — the result of rising temperatures, diminishing snowpack, and more frequent droughts.

This e360 video, “Unacceptable Risk: Firefighters on the Front Lines of Climate Change,” produced by The Story Group, focuses on the people battling to save lives and property in a rapidly changing environment.

It tells the story of dedicated professionals struggling to come to grips with a new and frightening breed of fire. Once known as the “asbestos state” because of its low incidence of big wildfires, Colorado is now experiencing huge, record-breaking fires almost every year.

“We’re being asked to battle fires that didn’t exist 20 years ago,” says veteran firefighter Don Whittemore. “We’re seeing a level of fire and an intensity of fire and a risk to firefighters that hasn’t existed in the past. On a day-to-day basis we’re being surprised — and in this business, surprise is what kills people.”

Watch the video.

B.C. fires: More than 100 new wildfires in 24 hours

July 22, 2015

B.C. fires: More than 100 new wildfires in 24 hours

Lightning, heat and high winds combine to create challenging conditions for firefighters

In just 24 hours, 115 new wildfires have flared up across B.C. — most of them in the Kamloops area and the southeast part of the province.

“Lightning was a huge driver of increased fire activity yesterday and that would be from the lightning activity we saw Sunday night,” said Ryan Turcot of the B.C. Wildfire Service.

Nine communities are under evacuation alerts or orders, according to the wildfire service.

Kelsey Winter, also with B.C. Wildfire Service, said crews are monitoring erratic winds expected to hit the region later today.

“[We’re] making sure we get as many resources as we can today, before the winds pick up, and try to get some containment on those fires,” said Winter.

West Kelowna fire still growing

A fast-moving wildfire on Westside Road near West Kelowna’s Shelter Cove area has now grown to about 430 hectares, up from 175 hectares earlier today and 30 hectares yesterday.

 

West Kelowna fire still growing

A fast-moving wildfire on Westside Road near West Kelowna’s Shelter Cove area has now grown to about 430 hectares, up from 175 hectares earlier today and 30 hectares yesterday.

Most of the growth has been uphill, away from nearby homes, but the fire has remained difficult to contain on a steep slope, with high winds and a lot of dry fuel.

“Wind is our number 1 enemy out here,” fire information officer Dale Bojara said Tuesday afternoon.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

B.C. wildfire forces evacuation near Shelter Cove area of West Kelowna

July 21, 2015

B.C. wildfire forces evacuation near Shelter Cove area of West Kelowna

Darkness preventing helicopter or air tanker support from effectively assisting firefighters

Fire crews and officials scrambled to keep residents safe from a quickly spreading blaze near Westside Road in West Kelowna, B.C., which has so far destroyed at least one home.

The wildfire was sparked by lightning on Sunday afternoon, and had largely died down before erupting again late Monday. It’s now grown to 30 hectares in size, fuelled by strong winds and dry conditions, according to fire officials in the Central Okanagan Regional District.

Dramatic images on social media show it burning down the western slope of Okanagan Lake above Westside Road.

Danielle Erickson @waxyredcrayon

Fire still spreading. Smaller fire on the edge of lake next to house

The BC Wildfire Service says the fire is burning at Rank 4, which is described as a vigorous surface fire.

The service says in a release that an evacuation order has been recommended to the Central Okanagan Regional District for approximately 70 properties in the Shelter Cove area.

The district has confirmed to CBC News that it is trying to move people out from residences and properties along Westside Road near Shelter Cove between La Casa and Lake Okanagan Resort.

 

 

Metro Vancouver air quality comparable to Beijing

July 7, 2015

Metro Vancouver air quality comparable to Beijing

Health authorities advise caution due to smoke from hundreds of wildfires across B.C.

Smoke from wildfires in the Interior of British Columbia blankets the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. Health officials in the province have issued air quality warnings as a result of the fires.

Smoke from wildfires in the Interior of British Columbia blankets the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. Health officials in the province have issued air quality warnings as a result of the fires. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Health authorities say Metro Vancouver’s air quality has dipped to levels close to those found in major Chinese polluted cities such as Beijing, and are warning residents to stay indoors, due in part to the rampant wildfires in B.C.

“I would say that the air quality that we’ve experienced recently [in B.C.] and are experiencing now is unfortunately something that residents in a lot of cities in China experience on quite a regular basis, which I think is quite concerning because these are certainly levels that pose a risk for human health and well-being,” said Fraser Health medical health officer Dr. Lisa Mu.

The string of forest fires currently burning in the province forced Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories on Monday for several areas, including Metro Vancouver.

The sharp decrease in air quality is mostly due to small particles from the fires, which can irritate people’s lungs.

The highest concentration of particulate matter in the air has been found in North Burnaby, where levels are not far behind those in Beijing. The sprawling Chinese city is notorious for its poor air quality. It’s often engulfed in smog for days on end as China contends with rampant air pollution stemming from its decades of economic growth.

Particulate matter numbers:

  • ​Beijing: 144 µg/m3
  • Burnaby north: 112 µg/m3
  • Vancouver: 60.1 µg/m3
  • Abbotsford: 58 µg/m3
  • Paris: 56 µg/m3

Note: These figures are accurate for 7 p.m. PT on Monday. Source: Air Quality B.C.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

Another Reason To Move Away From California: ‘Conditions Are Like A Third-World Country’

April 20, 2015

Another Reason To Move Away From California: ‘Conditions Are Like A Third-World Country’

As if anyone actually neededanother reason to move out of the crazy state of California, now it is being reported that conditions in some areas of the state “are like a third-world country” due to the multi-year megadrought that has hit the state.  In one California county alone, more than 1,000 wells have gone dry as the groundwater has disappeared.  The state is turning back into a desert, and an increasing number of homes no longer have any water coming out of their taps or showerheads.  So if you weren’t scared away by the wildfires, mudslides, high taxes, crime, gang violence, traffic, insane political correctness, the nightmarish business environment or the constant threat of “the big one” reducing your home to a pile of rubble, perhaps the fact that much of the state could soon be facing Dust Bowl conditions may finally convince you to pack up and leave.  And if you do decide to go, you won’t be alone.  Millions of Californians have fled the state in recent years, and this water crisis could soon spark the greatest migration out of the state that we have ever seen.

Back in 1972, Albert Hammond released a song entitled “It Never Rains In Southern California“, and back then that was considered to be a good thing.

But today, years of very little rain are really starting to take a toll.  In fact, one government official says that conditions in Tulare Country “are like a third-world country”…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

 

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