Wildfires

And so here I was with a happy little ditty on Fort McMurray and field work and corn nuts all flippantly written up, only to get back to Meanook yesterday from our first expedition (the field station) to learn that basically, the world was on fire.  I’ve grown accustomed to hearing about all of the flooding problems in the US and Canada, but now it is only wildfires on everyone's lips here.

It is interesting to get a new perspective on things now and again and that plays out nearly every time I head to the research station here in Alberta.  I’ve learned that they don’t realize it is flooding in the US and we have no idea it is flooding in Manitoba, either.  They cheer only now for Vancouver to win the Stanley Cup.  For the most part, we could give two flying flips about who wins.  We go about our lives not worrying about wildfires while they are losing everything to the beasts.  If it isn't water, it is fire it seems, here. 

Fire has broken out everywhere in our area and it seems the whole province is on fire depending on who you talk to.  Reliable detailed information is surprisingly difficult to find.  What we do know is that Slave Lake – population around 7000 was evacuated yesterday only very late in the day.  Fires were around the town and fires are fairly common here and so they know what they are doing with the whole firefighting thing.  They weren’t terribly worried and thought they had the fires contained, but Mother Nature decided to bump up the winds to 70-100 kms/hr fueling the fires;  and by the evening, citizens were being told to find large parking lots and to get as close to the lake as possible.  The fires had surrounded the town.  The three roads in and out of Slave Lake were impassable and everyone was trapped.  They got one road open in part with the use of guide trucks forging a flashing trail through the dense smoke and have since safely evacuated everyone.  The fire still burns, but according to the most recent news report, 40% of the town is cinders.

Athabasca, the small town closest to Meanook is now helping hundreds of refugees who are bunking in the local indoor soccer gym…  600 people and their pets have found a home here for now – just a two hours drive from Slave Lake.  More have been sent along toward Edmonton as we cannot house them all, and south is the only way out.  The roads and town are still not accessible.  Winds have died down, but fires still rage out of control.  Fires have sprung up to the east, north, and west of us and smoke permeates the air here at the field station.  I was supposed to lead a group to do some field work at a site we have near Utikuma Lake tomorrow (north of Slave Lake) and have Zero hope of doing so.  There are literally hundreds of hotspots surrounding the roads we must travel and I give it a good percentage that at least one of our sites has burned and no longer even exists as we once knew it.  Ironically, it was once one of our “fire sites” where we studied carbon cycling in bogs based on age of bog…   perhaps we have just reset the clock.   What this all means to us here at the field station remains unclear and the fickle finger of Mother Nature will keep us on our toes for quite some time, I believe.  The helicopter we hired to load equipment into our new site is now being used to fight fires elsewhere and is indeterminately unavailable.  I see a lot of walking with a lot of heavy stuff for a lot of people in our very near future.  Not until a soaking rain, will these fires all be doused.  I am not holding my breath.   I will be heading into the cinder zone as soon as possible, but for now, it is solidly off limits.   We hope for containment for all the fires everywhere here and for now Meanook is smoky but not in the line of fire. 

Be safe wherever you are.  I will keep you updated.