Canadian fires

I live in St Paul mn usa.

I am smelling smoke but there is nothing on fire around here.

I find it pretty amazing that it is coming this far.

It must be pretty big there.

They evacuated 80000 people because of that fire, it is pretty big.

yes, we got a hint of smoke up here yesterday too. The fire is big, roughly 741,316 acres or 932 square miles.

Blaze will take months to extinguish, Alberta fire officialsays - The Globe and Mail

It is not the only fire burning in northern parts of Canada so that doesn't help either with the smoke.

Bob

So the really big fire is burning in NE Alberta. British Columbia sit to the west of Alberta. In NE British columbia there is another wildfire burning of quite substantial (but not gargantuan) size. The one in BC has the Alaska Highway closed and some rural areas evacuated. This is the first time a city has been overrun by a wildfire. The city is Fort McMurray and there are a lot of pictures and videos on the internet. The fire is so big it can easily be seen from space. It is the largest fire in the recorded history of North America and has destroyed more property than any other wildfire to date, and I believe that is worldwide, so it's a big one. Firefighters from all over the world are in Alberta right now trying to save infrastructure. Red Cross has had 34 million in donations to help the people evacuated. I have some cousins that live there.

Sorry to hear this. Your fires there have been on the new here too. I hope nobody gets killed.

So far there have only been 2 fatalities related to the fire.

https://www.veooz.com/news/HKrtELy.html

As terrible as that is I hope there are no further fatalities.

Bob

I see that almost 300 South Africans have arrived in Edmonton to help fight the fires.

WATCH As 281 Chanting SA Firefighters Land in Canada to Battle Blazes - SAPeople - Your Worldwide South African Community

It is by a long shot the largest fire in recorded Canadian history, it has also caused the most damage of any fire in Canada. I have no idea how it ranks Globally though, I know there have been some big fires in Australia that may have been bigger. It's nice to see countries sharing resources. I think we could all spend more time sharing and helping one another and less time squabbling over stuff. I say thank to the firefighters from everywhere that have converged on the scene.

Yes, a hearty thank you to all the countries sending help to fight this fire.

Bob