Fort McMurray Fire

So, if you guys watch the news I'm sure by now you've heard of the huge fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Fort Mac is about 200 miles northeast of where I live up here in the great white north. My wife used to work in the area before her
health took a turn for the worse a year and a half ago. Had she still been gainfully employed by the same company it's entirely
possible she would have been up there during the fire. As luck would have it, she wasn't! To the best of my knowledge, around 1600
structures have burnt and 80,000 people were evacuated.

At present, a very good friend of my wife is up in Fort Mac rescuing pets that were left behind and has been working herself to exhaustion
for several days now that the fire has passed through.

In 2011 we had a forest fire about 75 miles west of us in and around Lesser Slave Lake and the town of Slave Lake situated
on the east end of that lake. My son was living in Slave Lake when they evacuated it and came and stayed with us for a week before
couch surfing on a friend's sofa in the big city. I'm not sure of the exact count of structures burnt in this fire but it was over 10 and less than 50.
10,000 people had to be evacuated.

As luck would have it, a coworker and friend of my wife, Mike, was living in Slave Lake in 2011 and had to evacuate. I hauled a couple 5 gallon
jerry can's of diesel to him on the road so he would have enough fuel to haul his travel trailer and family to the big city. Guess where he's living now?
Yep, Fort Mac. He was actually in Calgary on business when the order came to evac but my wife contacted him and told him his wife and kids
were welcome to come stay with us for a few days if they needed to. They didn't. Her family are all in Slave Lake so that's where they went.

We've been very lucky here where I live (so far) and with luck, we may get enough rain to actually help lower the risk in our area in the not too distant future!
Just to be safe, my travel trailer is packed with some necessities and if need be, we can be ready to leave in moments but it's looking
like that may not be necessary.

If you haven't heard, just google "Fort McMurray fire" and you'll get a ton of hits.

If you're interested in helping the people affected by this fire here's a link to the "Canadian Red Cross" site:

https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action...paign.id=50639

I sure hope it stays away from you. I'll be coming through that area in a few weeks!

Been all over the news down here in Chicago... Terrible situation, no doubt - the video is pretty dramatic. Thoughts and prayers to those in the midst of that hell.

I was very impressed with the Canadians who just up and went to the area carrying large loads of water, fuel, food, clothes, etc - just waiting on the side of the road to supply anyone evacuating so they had what they needed to get out of there.