Major forest fire in Fort Mac

Sorry to see some negative comments about our political leaders. I am grateful they kept out of the way so that the first responders could do their work. Did you see the one policeman standing at the intersection in the heavy smoke,fierce heat and burning ash, directing traffic? What a guy!

 

Minimum, alot of damage to be assessed and hopefully no one go trapped in a home. They need to go through and make sure homes are clear gas lines capped and electrical lines disconnected before the restore power.

 

I'm guessing lots won't even return.....

 

People may not wish to return until the fire ash in town is assessed. There is obviously pre-existing ground contamination in Fort McMurray from airborne carcinogens released by tarsand processing but house fires also leave behind toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic ash contaminated with heavy metals, dioxins and furans and so on. There may also be areas where gasoline from burning vehicle tanks (especially those tanks in pick-up truck beds) has contaminated ground that domestic water pipes run through.

Supposedly the post-fire integrity of the radioactive waste dump in Beacon Hill has been assessed but I don't think I would enter the remains of Beacon Hill without a second opinion on that one.

One of my occupations is trucking special waste (ie especially dangerous - so dangerous I sometimes require a police escort, so no throwing beer cans out the window while driving).

This Fort McMurray resident evacuated to Edmonton summarizes the Fort McMurray return situation in this CBC radio interview:

https://soundcloud.com/cbc-radio-one/8-yearold-evacuee-wants-to-stay-in-edmonton

 

This one will take a long while to sort out, I must say that I am impressed with how most people are handling this tragedy,

 

As for the radio active waste, its in a cell under 20ft of earth that wasn't actually hit by the fire. I wouldn't be concerned about it. The caustic ash poses a way bigger threat.