Fort McMurray, a Canadian Oil Boom Town, Is Left in Ashes

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“Doctors and lawyers don’t make the money we make,” said Chad Abbott, 50, a scaffolding company supervisor.

Mr. Abbott moved to Fort McMurray in 1998 with his family and worked at an oil sands plant site, earning about 250,000 Canadian dollars a year. He was part of a tightknit community in the city composed largely of oil services employees, trades workers and engineers, many of whom have lost all they own.

Initially during the most recent boom, Fort McMurray had welcomed keeping much of the fast-growing work force in the remote work camps. But those workers’ lack of connection to Fort McMurray — as well as the lack of their dollars being spent there — eventually stirred resentment.

“In the early days, they didn’t want the camp workers in town because they would bring with them all you would imagine in the Wild West: come into town, shoot up the town and head back out,” said Stephen Ross, the president of Devonian Properties, which began buying local land in 2000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/world/americas/fort-mcmurray-fire-canada-oil-boom.html

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1. Inside Fort McMurray: Helicopter crews battle wildfires from the sky

CARRIE TAIT AND JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI
Fort McMurray, Alta. The Globe and Mail Last updated: Monday, May 09, 2016 11:10AM EDT

Mr. Saumure does 20 laps to the pond before the hotspot is snuffed out. The wildfire consuming Fort McMurray has already threatened Phoenix’s operations, coming within 10 metres of one of its fuel tanks and six metal containers holding expensive helicopter parts last week. The fire was about 50 metres away from one of Phoenix’s white hangars before the crew extinguished it, but not before it toasted two trucks and started to burn fuel barrels containing dregs.

This fire first reached Fort McMurray last Tuesday and has since merged with two other fires and is on the verge of running over two more. It creates its own weather and its lightning has sparked more burns. Fifteen helicopters, 14 air tankers, 88 pieces of equipment and about 500 firefighters are fighting the fire that has flamed through 161,000 hectares and growing. At 200 kilometres per hour, it would take 20 minutes to fly from one edge of the fire to another.

Firefighters are focusing on Fort McMurray’s critical infrastructure. The hospital is intact but smoky; most of downtown has survived.

About 1,600 structures burned down as of last Wednesday and the government has not provided an update since. The fire torched buildings in nearby Anzac, a hamlet which earlier last week served as one of Fort McMurray’s evacuation centres.

Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/helicopter-crews-battle-fort-mcmurray-wildfires-from-thesky/article29935605/