Sun, May 08, 2016 page1

• Canadians drive through burning city seeking safety

  • AFP, FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta
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  Canadian police on Friday led convoys of cars through the burning ghost town of Fort McMurray in a risky operation to get thousands of people to safety on the other side.

  Monster wildfires, which yesterday had the potential to double in size, were continuing to burn out of control in the parched region, said Chad Morrison, senior manager of wildfire prevention at the Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Division.

  The blaze in Alberta’s oil sands region would not be extinguished for “a very long time” until there is significant rain, he said.

  There is a 30 percent chance of rain today, the Canadian government forecast said, followed by sunny conditions tomorrow. More rain is possible later in the week.

  In the latest harrowing chapter, convoys of 50 cars at a time made their way through Fort McMurray at about 50kph to 60kph, TV footage showed.

  Police took up positions at intersections along the way to keep evacuees from detouring to try to salvage belongings from charred homes, and to make sure the route remains safe from the fire, which has encircled the town of 100,000 people, now evacuated.

  Three army helicopters hovered above to sound an alert if the flames got too close to the road, Highway 63, or cut it off completely, as has happened in recent days.

  Those being evacuated — for a second time, after first abandoning their homes — had fled this week to an area north of the city where oil companies have lodging camps for workers.

  However, officials concluded they were no longer safe there because of shifting winds that raised the risk of them becoming trapped, and needed to move south to other evacuee staging grounds and eventually to Edmonton, 400km to the south.

  About 8,000 people were airlifted out of the northern enclave on Thursday. Officials said the road convoys for the remaining 17,000 people would take about four days.

  Security camera footage from inside one family’s home underscored the speed at which the blaze could overcome any stragglers. Thick grey smoke filled the living room within 30 seconds, while flames quickly ate away a wall.

  Among the first evacuees to reach Wandering River, a hamlet about 200km south of Fort McMurray, Margarita Carnicero said she had feared for her life on the journey to safety.

  “It was a terrible experience,” she said as she sat in her dust-covered sports utility vehicle alongside her teenage daughter, Michelle. “I was afraid, but I tried not to show it [so as] not to frighten my daughter.”

  “With all of the smoke, the trip was hard on the lungs,” said Greg Stengel, an oil company employee who also joined the convoy.

  Before they got underway, officials had to make sure the escape route was passable and truck fuel in so people had gas to make it across a city in flames.

  Television footage earlier this week showed trees ablaze on the edge of highways crowded with bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to leave the town.

  Bright embers whizzed wildly through the air and floated down onto cars, like hot, orange rain.

  “We understand that this is still an active situation. The wildfires are still raging,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a media conference on Friday.

  The government has declared a state of emergency in Alberta, a province the size of France that is home to one of the world’s most prodigious oil industries.
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