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On May 1, 2016, a
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
began southwest of
Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significan ...
,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
. On May 3, it swept through the community, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history, with upwards of 88,000 people forced from their homes. Firefighters were assisted by personnel from both the
Canadian Armed Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...
and
Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
, as well as other Canadian provincial agencies, to fight the wildfire. Aid for evacuees was provided by various governments and via donations through the
Canadian Red Cross The Canadian Red Cross Society ()northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the cen ...
and into Saskatchewan, consuming forested areas and impacting Athabasca oil sands operations. With an estimated damage cost of C$9.9 billion, it was the costliest disaster in
Canadian history The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...
. The fire spread across approximately before it was declared to be under control on July 5, 2016. It continued to smoulder, and was fully extinguished on August 2, 2017. It is suspected to have been caused by humans in a remote area from Fort McMurray, but no official cause has been determined to date.


Fire progression


Cause and contributing factors

The fire was first spotted by a helicopter forestry crew in a remote area from Fort McMurray on May 1, 2016, and they reported it. First responders arrived 45 minutes later. An official cause of the fire has not been determined to date, but it was suspected to be human caused. During the start of the fire, an unusually hot, dry air mass was in place over
Northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the cen ...
, which brought record-setting temperatures to Fort McMurray. On May 3, the temperature climbed to , accompanied by
relative humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity dep ...
as low as 12%. The situation intensified on May 4 when temperatures reached and winds gusted to 72 km/h (45 mph). A natural
El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date ...
cycle also led to a dry fall and winter season along with a warm spring, leaving a paltry snowpack, which melted quickly. Combined with the high temperatures, this created a " perfect storm" of conditions for an explosive wildfire, and significantly contributed to the fire's rapid growth. Climate change was also cited as a potential contributor to the start and spread of the fire. Debate occurred as to whether it was "insensitive" to discuss it during the crisis, or whether the crisis made it "more important" to talk about a correlation between human-influenced climate change and wildfires. Canada's politicians and scientists both cautioned that individual fires cannot specifically be linked to climate change, but agree that it is part of a general trend of more intense wildfires.


Spread to Fort McMurray

As the fire spread towards settlements in Fort McMurray, a local state of emergency was declared on May 1 at 9:57 p.m. MDT (03:57 UTC May 2) with the Centennial Trailer Park and the neighborhoods of Prairie Creek and Gregoire under a mandatory evacuation. The evacuation orders for the two neighborhoods were reduced to a voluntary stay-in-place order by the night of May 2 as the fire moved southwest and away from the area. The mandatory evacuation order was reinstated and expanded to 12 neighbourhoods on May 3 at 5:00 p.m. (23:00 UTC), and to the entirety of Fort McMurray by 6:49 p.m. (00:49 UTC May 4). A further order covering the nearby communities of
Anzac The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood comm ...
, Gregoire Lake Estates, and
Fort McMurray First Nation Fort McMurray First Nation ( cr, ᓂᐢᑕᐚᔮᐤ, nistawâyâw) is a Cree and Chipewyan band government located near Fort McMurray, Alberta. It is a member of the Athabasca Tribal Council and a Treaty 8 nation. The Athabasca Tribal Counci ...
was issued at 9:50 p.m. on May 4 (03:50 UTC May 5). It has been reported that 88,000 people were successfully evacuated, with no reported fatalities or injuries, but two people, Aaron Hodgson and Emily Ryan, were killed in a vehicular collision during the evacuation, one of whom was the daughter of a firefighter. Despite the mandatory evacuation order, staff at the water treatment plant remained in Fort McMurray to provide firefighters with water. On May 4, the
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (abbreviated RMWB) is a specialized municipality in northeast Alberta, Canada. It is the second largest municipality in Alberta by area and is home to oil sand deposits known as the Athabasca oil sand ...
reported the communities of
Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to: Places Canada * Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood * Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia * Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan * Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec United ...
, Abasand and
Waterways A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary ...
had suffered "serious loss". The Government of Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency, and said 1,600 buildings had been destroyed by the fires. It was estimated that of land had been burned. Evacuees who travelled north of Fort McMurray were advised to stay where they were, and not to come south on Highway 63 as the fire was still burning out of control. A
boil-water advisory A boil-water advisory, boil-water notice, boil-water warning, boil-water order, or boil order is a public-health advisory or directive issued by governmental or other health authorities to consumers when a community's drinking water is or could b ...
was issued for the entire area just after 11 a.m. (17:00 UTC). At 4:05 p.m. (22:05 UTC) the fire crossed Highway 63 at Airport Road (formerly Highway 69), south of Fort McMurray, and threatened the
international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer r ...
, which had suspended commercial operations earlier in the day. The fire also forced the re-location of the Regional Emergency Operations Centre, which was originally in the vicinity of the airport. On May 4, the fire was found to be producing lightning and
pyrocumulus cloud A flammagenitus cloud, also known as a flammagenitus, pyrocumulus cloud, or fire cloud, is a dense cumuliform cloud associated with fire or volcanic eruptions. A flammagenitus is similar dynamically in some ways to a firestorm, and the two phen ...
s due to its heat and large size, which added to the risk of more fires. The fires became large enough to create a
firestorm A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...
, creating its own weather in the form of wind influxes and lightning. The fire continued to spread south on May 5 across and forcing additional evacuations in the communities of
Anzac The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood comm ...
, Gregoire Lake Estates and the
Fort McMurray First Nation Fort McMurray First Nation ( cr, ᓂᐢᑕᐚᔮᐤ, nistawâyâw) is a Cree and Chipewyan band government located near Fort McMurray, Alberta. It is a member of the Athabasca Tribal Council and a Treaty 8 nation. The Athabasca Tribal Counci ...
. These communities had accepted over 8,000 people during the initial evacuations. The Government of Alberta announced a plan to airlift approximately 8,000 of 25,000 people who had evacuated to oil sands work camps north of Fort McMurray, with assistance from a
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...
aircraft, and other planes owned by energy companies operating in the oil sands. 1,110 personnel, 145
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...
s, 138 pieces of heavy equipment and 22
air tanker The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Gravity of Earth, Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating Atmo ...
s were employed to fight the fire. On May 6, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
began leading convoys to move 1,500 vehicles from oil sand work camps north of Fort McMurray, south along Highway 63 to
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...
. The fire continued to grow out of control, spreading to by May 6, and by May 7. As the fire grew to the northeast, the community of
Fort McKay Fort McKay ( ) or Fort MacKay is a community in northeast Alberta, Canada that is located at the confluence of the Athabasca and MacKay rivers. It is approximately north of Fort McMurray via Highway 63 and Fort McKay Road. The community has an ...
, which hosted 5,000 evacuees from Fort McMurray, was itself put under an evacuation notice. Albertan officials anticipated that the fire would double in size, and reach the
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
border to the east.


Remote growth, control and extinguishment

The wildfire continued to spread through remote forested areas in the following week, reaching oilsand work camps south of Fort MacKay, forcing the evacuation of 19 oil sites and camps with approximately 8,000 workers. One lodge with 665 units was destroyed. The fire continued to grow, from on May 16 to on May 21 and even spread across in Saskatchewan. While the fire moved away from Fort McMurray, two explosions and poor air quality continued to prevent residents and rebuilding crews from returning to the town. By May 18, the fire had grown to and expanded into Saskatchewan. By mid-June, rain and cooler temperatures helped firefighters contain the fire, and on July 4, 2016, the fire was declared under control. The wildfire was still considered to be active over the following year, having smouldered in deeper layers of moss and dirt throughout the winter. On August 2, 2017, with no further or detection of hot spots by thermal surveys conducted over the summer, provincial officials declared the wildfire extinguished.


Response


Aid response

The Government of Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency for Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016, and issued a formal request for assistance from the
Canadian Armed Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...
. The government and the
Department of National Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...
signed a
memorandum A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief and ...
of understanding on May 4, detailing required assistance and use of helicopters for rescue operations. Shortly after, a
CC-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 ...
departed
CFB Trenton Canadian Forces Base Trenton (also CFB Trenton), formerly RCAF Station Trenton, is a Canadian Forces base located within the city of Quinte West, Ontario. It is operated as an air force base by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and is the hub ...
and helicopters were dispatched to the affected area. Alberta also requested assistance from the
Government of Ontario The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor� ...
, and Ontario committed to sending 100 firefighters and 19 supervisory staff, coordinated through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Other provinces across the country offered support. On May 5, four
CL-415 The Canadair CL-415 (Super Scooper, later Bombardier 415) and the De Havilland Canada DHC-515 are a series of amphibious aircraft built originally by Canadair and subsequently by Bombardier and Viking Air, and De Havilland Canada. The CL-415 ...
water bombers Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
from
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
's Service aérien gouvernemental ( fr) took off from the province to aid in the firefighting effort. Approximately 300
Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
officers provided security in the wildfire area. South Africa sent 301 firefighters at the request of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre at the end of May. The firefighters were trained during the month of April at a boot camp, in order how to learn to use special hoses instead of the leather-padded wooden sticks known as "firebeaters" they typically use in their home country due to a lack of water. Less than a week after being deployed, the South Africans went on strike over a wage dispute and were demobilized. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley vowed to address the issue and ensure that the firefighters were paid a minimum of 11.20 per hour as required by the province's labour laws, rather than the 15 per day allowance specified in their contract with their South African employer. The Alberta government provided an initial $1,250 per adult and $500 per dependent to cover living expenses for those who had evacuated. On May 4, the provincial government committed to match donations made to the
Canadian Red Cross The Canadian Red Cross Society () the federal government pledged to match all donations to the Canadian Red Cross the next day, with a deadline set to May 31. , $54 million has been donated to the Red Cross, not including matching government contributions. On May 4,
Public Safety Canada Public Safety Canada (PSC; french: Sécurité publique Canada, SPC; PSP), legally incorporated as the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (PSEPC), is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for (most) matters of ...
activated the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, thus providing for the charitable and humanitarian re-tasking of the diverse
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
assets of 15
space agencies This is a list of government agencies engaged in activities related to outer space and space exploration. As of 2022, 77 different government space agencies are in existence, 16 of which have launch capabilities. Six government space agencie ...
. Later, Edmonton's Capital Region Housing Corporation (CRHC), along with the City of Edmonton, the Alberta Residential Landlord Association, and Yardi Canada Ltd., announced a partnership to create a registry of rental properties for Fort McMurray evacuees. The non-profit initiative would offer this service free of charge to landlords for the next six months. Some landlords had offered incentives to wildfire evacuees, including reduced security deposits, reduced rent, or free rent for a month or more. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Fort McMurray on May 13 to survey the damage and promised ongoing aid from the federal government in the coming months. The
Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy ...
,
David Johnston David Lloyd Johnston (born June 28, 1941) is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served from 2010 to 2017 as Governor General of Canada, the 28th since Canadian Confederation. He is the commissioner of the Leaders' Debates Commis ...
, and
Sophie, Countess of Wessex Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Forfar, (born Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones, 20 January 1965) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar, the youngest brother of King Charles III. She grew u ...
, met with first responders and visited the ruins of the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of Fort McMurray on June 24, 2016.


Political controversy

The Alberta government was criticized for cutting $15 million from the province's
wildfire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated ...
budget in April 2016, just prior to the outbreak of the wildfire. While Premier Rachel Notley contended that wildfires were paid by emergency funds that would not be limited to combat a wildfire, local
air tanker The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Gravity of Earth, Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating Atmo ...
companies argued that the cuts created a personnel issue, and would make it more difficult to keep staff on duty during the wildfire season. Cuts were also made to fire preparation budgets, which funded activities such as creating fire breaks, but it is not certain that those activities would have been beneficial against a wildfire powerful enough to traverse the Athabasca River. The federal government was criticized after international assistance from
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
,
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, the
Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
, and the United States was offered in battling the fire, and turned down by Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since ...
. Russia specifically offered
Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a com ...
firefighting aircraft that could handle up to 42 tons of fire suppression at one time. Trudeau said that while the offers were appreciated, they were unnecessary as firefighters from other Canadian provinces were gaining control of the situation. Trudeau was also criticized on May 6, 2016, for not visiting Fort McMurray and showing support, less than a week after the fire started. Trudeau responded that "showing up in Fort McMurray, when firefighters are busy trying to contain a massive raging wildfire, is not a particularly helpful thing," and comparisons were drawn to former Prime Minister
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
's visit to
Kelowna Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ' ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...
the previous year. Trudeau visited Fort McMurray a week later on May 13, 2016.


Impacts


Communities and infrastructure

Initial estimates from May 4 indicated that 1,600 structures in Fort McMurray were destroyed. Firefighters worked through May 6 and 7 to hold the line and protect the downtown and remaining homes in Fort McMurray. On May 9, this figure was revised to 2,400 structures, and about 85 to 90% of the community was reported undamaged. Overnight on May 16–17, two explosions occurred in the Thickwood and Dickensfield neighbourhoods, damaging 10 buildings and destroying three. The town's power grid sustained damage. Almost the entire Fort McMurray area was placed under a
boil-water advisory A boil-water advisory, boil-water notice, boil-water warning, boil-water order, or boil order is a public-health advisory or directive issued by governmental or other health authorities to consumers when a community's drinking water is or could b ...
during the fire, since untreated water was placed into the municipal water system to supply firefighters. The boil water advisory was lifted in all areas of Fort McMurray on August 17, 2016.
Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...
suspended enumeration activities for the 2016 Census in the Fort McMurray area on May 5. Alternative means to collect data from its residents were to be determined at a later date. Some census data was received early, and some residents sent their census data online after the evacuation. Statistics Canada was able to create an accurate 2016 census profile for Fort McMurray using this information, as well as
Canada Revenue Agency The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA; ; ) is the revenue service of the Canadian federal government, and most provincial and territorial governments. The CRA collects taxes, administers tax law and policy, and delivers benefit programs and tax cre ...
income tax records, local birth and death records, and long-form census information collected by surveyors going door to door. The neighbourhoods of Waterways, Abasand, and Beacon Hill saw the heaviest damage from the wildfire. Until debris could be cleared, they were declared unsafe for re-occupation because of contamination from arsenic and heavy metals. Residents did not return to these neighbourhoods until the end of October 2016.


Oil sands operations

The wildfire halted
oil sands Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
production at facilities north of Fort McMurray.
Shell Canada Shell Canada Limited (french: Shell Canada Limitée) is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a maj ...
shut down output at its
Albian Sands Albian Sands Energy Inc. is the operator of the Muskeg River Mine and Jack Pine Mine, an oil sands mining project located north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. It is a joint venture between Shell Canada (10%), CNRL (70%) and Chevron Canada ...
mining operation, located approximately north of Fort McMurray. The company said its priority was to get employees and their families out of the region, and provide capacity at its work camp for some of the evacuees. Shell also provided its landing strip to fly employees and their families to Calgary or Edmonton and provided two teams to support firefighting efforts in the area.
Suncor Energy Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
and Syncrude Canada also scaled back operations. Suncor's Millennium and North Steepbank mines were two of the largest and oldest oilsands mining operations in the Fort McMurray area, and Syncrude's Mildred Lake oilsands mine is located north of Fort McMurray. The companies accommodated another 2,000 evacuees each at their work camps. On May 7, Syncrude shut down all site and processing operations, removing 4,800 employees from the area. On May 16, all 665 rooms at Blacksands Executive Lodge, a work camp, burned in the wildfire. Earlier that day, about 8,000 people were ordered out of 19 camps; about 6,000 remained. By May 17, the fire appeared to reach the Noralta Lodge, a few kilometres east of Blacksands. Approximately one million barrels of oil a day, equal to a quarter of Canada's oil production, was halted as a result of the fire in May 2016. This continued into June at a rate of 700,000 barrels per day. The lost output was estimated to cost the Albertan economy $70 million per day, and was a contributing factor to rises in global oil prices. The scaled back operations, along with a refinery outage in Edmonton, caused many gas stations to run out of gas throughout
Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...
. Oil companies restored production and anticipated all financial impacts would wear off by the end of the third
fiscal quarter A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ju ...
.


Costs

Initial insurance payouts were estimated to total as much as C$9 billion if the entire community had to be rebuilt. By July 7, 2016, the
Insurance Bureau of Canada The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC; french: Bureau d'assurance du Canada) is a trade association representing home, auto, and business insurance companies in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three ...
(IBC) and Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) reported that insured damage was estimated to have reached $3.58 billion, making the wildfire the most expensive disaster in Canadian history, surpassing the 1998 ice storms in Quebec ($1.9 billion) and the
2013 Alberta floods In the days leading up to June 19, 2013, parts of southern and central Alberta, Canada experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding described by the provincial government as the worst in Alberta's history. Areas along the Bo ...
($1.8 billion). The
2011 Slave Lake Wildfire A large wildfire burned through Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada and its surrounding area from May 14 to 16, 2011. The conflagration, which originated outside of town as a forest fire, was quickly pushed past fire barriers designed to protect the t ...
, which destroyed one-third of the town of
Slave Lake Slave Lake is a town in northern Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No. 124. It is approximately northwest of Edmonton. It is located on the southeast shore of Lesser Slave Lake at the junction ...
, cost approximately $750 million and was the most expensive fire-related disaster in Canadian history. The larger damage estimates were a result of Fort McMurray being 10 times the size of Slave Lake. A further estimate based on current damage estimated insurance payouts reaching as high as $4.7 billion.


Re-entry and recovery

On May 18, the Alberta government provisionally announced a phased re-entry of residents into Fort McMurray between June 1 and 15, 2016, given that a set of key conditions were met: *The wildfire no longer poses a threat and that hazardous areas can be secured; *Local government can be re-established; and, *Essential services such as emergency services, transportation, utilities and essential businesses can be re-established, as well as the infrastructure that supports these services. Residents were allowed to re-enter Fort McMurray and surrounding communities according to a schedule broken down into residential zones. The neighbourhoods of Waterways, Abasand, and Beacon Hill were severely burned, and were declared unsafe for reoccupation due to contamination from arsenic and heavy metals from leftover
ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non-gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
. 2,000 residents in these neighbourhoods were only allowed supervised visits to their homes, and relied on workers from the not-for-profit organization
Team Rubicon Team Rubicon is an international non-government organization (NGO) specializing in disaster response. History Team Rubicon was formed in January 2010 following the Haiti earthquake, when William McNulty and Jacob "Jake" Wood led a medica ...
to sift through leftover items. Between, August 31 and October 24, 2016, residents of 470 homes within the three neighbourhoods were able to move home. In the wake of the wildfire impact on Fort McMurray, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo created a wildfire recovery plan, establishing a framework and governance structure for recovery efforts. Recovery funding was estimated to be above $4.5 billion: $615 million from federal, provincial and municipal governments; $319 million from the Canadian Red Cross; and $3.58 billion from the insurance industry. As of January 2018, 90% of wildfire claims have been processed according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Reconstruction of impacted communities is ongoing, and as of May 2018, 20% of the homes destroyed have been rebuilt. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo updated their Wildfire Mitigation Strategy in January 2018, which conducted a risk assessment for wildfire behaviour. It also proposed clearing 867 hectares of vegetation, various access and safety standards for planned infrastructure and land development, educating members of the public on wildfire threats, cooperation and joint training between the municipal and provincial departments, and updates to emergency plans. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo also raised awareness about rebuilding homes to ensure they are more resilient to fire. However, insurance companies only provide funds to restore pre-fire conditions, and an independent review by
KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
found that it was unlikely that this would occur.


See also

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List of disasters in Canada This list of disasters in Canada includes major disasters (arranged by date), either man-made or natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and a ...
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List of fires in Canada This is a list of fires in Canada. Numbers for buildings only include those destroyed, and area is given in hectares and is converted to acres. List See also * List of Canadian disasters by death toll * List of fires in British Columbia * ...
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Boreal forest of Canada Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...


References


External links

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