Alberta 🥵🔥 Flashcards
1
Q
Spatial + Temporal setting
A
- 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
2
Q
Perceptions of the wildfire
A
- May 2nd + 3rd, people went to school
- 21.6% before the fire thought it had x threat to family
3
Q
Causes of wildfire
A
- 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.
4
Q
Impacts of the wildfire
A
- $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
5
Q
Response to the wildfire?
A
- ‘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