Fire Continued

image courtesy of NASA-EO

Brief update…  Fires are still burning.  We are fairly sure that our site (our major site with equipment, etc) is toast and the roads north of Slave Lake to our sites are still closed as fires still rage.  No one knows when they may be open again or when the fires will be contained.  I believe that is up to the weather and the diligent efforts of firefighters….  More sites in Fort McMurray may potentially be in trouble as a very large uncontrolled fire burns east of our site near the town of McKay.  McKay is being evacuated of folks with respiratory problems.  Smoke is thick there and Oil companies are evacuating processing plants that are in the line of smoke and fire.   No rain yet, just more hot and more wind.  Ironically, the bugs are now wicked as the heavy snow and ice melt here have the wetlands all brimming with water and bugs.  The uplands, on the other hand – dry as a bone.

Smoke came back with a vengeance last night ‘round midnight, 1 AM….   My eyes are burning and tired.  Seems ok now, but I can’t imagine what the firefighters have to deal with.  Here, it is just brief bits of smoke now and again.  

We are off to haul lumber into our fen site two hours north of here on the way to Fort McMurray – interestingly it is a fen surrounded by burned upland.  We just cleared a path there yesterday to get some quads in and I was a mess – full of soot and fine black powder.   Hard to imagine what walking through a fresh site will be like, but I’ll let you know once they let us back in….