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| Wall Street Journal | - |
FORT
MCMURRAY, Alberta—A low cloud of smoke hung close to the ground amid
the jack pines here, some burned black by wildfires that raged since
last week.
Fire-Ravaged Canadian Town Sits Silent After Mass Evacuations
Despite widespread devastation, much of Fort McMurray’s business core survives
ENLARGE
The charred remains of
a tree stands over the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Fort McMurray,
Alberta, on May 9, after wildfires forced the evacuation of the town.
Photo:
chris wattie/Reuters
For blocks, only the charred remnants of foundations, the odd surviving lamppost and some twisted black utility meters marked the houses in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Burned-out vehicles stood in some driveways.
Related Video
Cooler temperatures on Sunday
helped slow the spread of wildfires that ravaged the Canadian town of
Fort McMurray, though officials said the blazes could continue to burn
for months. Photo: AP.
Seeing the devastation “was really quite overwhelming in some spots,” Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said on Monday at a news conference after touring the town.
Reporters also got the first public look at Fort McMurray since the fire swept through on May 3, forcing the hasty evacuation of 80,000 residents.
ENLARGE
A police officer on Sunday checked vehicles at a roadblock along Highway 63 leading into fire-ravaged Fort McMurray.
Photo:
Scott Olson/Getty Images
She said one of the issues she would discuss with energy executives on Tuesday is housing for oil-sands workers subject to evacuation orders, some of whom have lost their homes.
“We’re hopeful we’ll be able to move in a relatively expedited way,” to bring oil-sands production back online, Ms. Notley said.
About 2,400 structures burned to the ground, in what Is being called the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. But 90% of the town’s buildings, including its schools, hospital and water-treatment plant were saved, Ms. Notley said.
The town’s business core, most of which was untouched by the fire, stands deserted. The wind toppled tables and chairs outside a darkened Starbucks as abandoned cars sat in the parking lot.
At a pair of trailer parks that were among the worst-hit residential areas, the fires were hot enough to scorch the grass, leaving few remnants other than satellite dishes.
The extent of the town’s destruction was due in part to an event that Fort McMurray’s fire chief, Darby Allen, said surprised his crew: The blaze he termed a beast crossed a river bisecting town.
“It jumped the Athabasca River,” he told reporters during Monday’s tour.
The fire leveled some parts of town, Mr. Allen said, because in the early hours of the effort to fight the blaze his crews were forced to retreat and abandon neighborhoods like Beacon Hill.
“This is rewriting the book the way this thing happened, the way this thing traveled, the way it behaved,” he said. “They’re rewriting their formulas the way fires behave based on this fire.”
The spread of the wildfires, which had slowed on Sunday, continued to do so on Monday, helped by cooler temperatures.
“We continue to hold the line in the communities of Fort McMurray and Anzac,” said Chad Morrison, Alberta’s manager of wildfire prevention, adding that more than 700 firefighters are currently involved in the effort, in conjunction with 20 helicopters and nearly 30 fixed-wing air tankers.
Ms. Notley urged evacuees, most of whom are being sheltered in Alberta cities including Edmonton and Calgary, not to attempt to return to the town. It remains under an evacuation order, with no time frame yet for a return.
With Fort McMurray and much of the surrounding area inaccessible to workers in the oil-sands industry, many oil producers have reduced their crude-oil output, with at least 645,000 barrels a day now cut, more than a quarter of daily production.
The cost of the damage has been estimated at more than six billion Canadian dollars (US$4.6 billion).
Ms. Notley signaled again that the province is committed to rebuilding, and said she would be talking to industry leaders about how they will be able to resume operations.
“The city was surrounded by an ocean of fire, but Fort McMurray and the surrounding cities have been saved and they will be rebuilt,” Ms. Notley said.
—David George-Cosh
contributed to this article.
Write to Chester Dawson at chester.dawson@wsj.com contributed to this article.
