Alberta 🥵🔥

Question 1

Spatial + Temporal setting

Answer 1

• Spread 540,000 hectares before control on 5th July
• Final size up to 4,200,000 acres
• 10% of city = destroyed
• Local state of emergency: May 1st 9:57pm
• First spotted 15km from Fort McMurray
• May 4th- large enough to make a firestorm
• August 2nd 2017- extinguished

Question 2

Perceptions of the wildfire

Answer 2

• May 2nd + 3rd, people went to school

- 21.6% before the fire thought it had x threat to family

Question 3

Causes of wildfire

Answer 3

• No evidence of natural cause - lightning strikes
• “Perfect storm” of conditions, e.g. 32.8•C, 72km/hr winds, El Niño 2016
• $15mill fire protection budget cut month before.
• Reduction of patchwork forests over time.

Question 4

Impacts of the wildfire

Answer 4

• $3.6 billion in damages, 88,000 evacu.
• 2,400 homes destroyed
• Production of 1 mill oil barrels/day halted (1/4 of Canada’s oil production)
• Mass job loss + unemployment

Question 5

Response to the wildfire?

Answer 5

• ‘Fort McMurry Strong’ signs
• Wood Buffalo Report, recommendations given on how to respond, e.g pet rescue
• Some communities 1yr later being rebuilt
• Prime Minister turned down aid from Australia, Israel, Mexico + Russia