Within the last week Canada has lost an entire city due to wild fire and it is rapidly spreading, and expected to double in size. Fort McMurray has been ablaze all week and the fire is spreading towards Saskatchewan. Attempts to put the fire out have been failing because the fire is so hot water it is evaporating before it can do any good.
Dry and extremely windy conditions are fueling the blaze, which has already scorched more than 1,560 square kilometers (602 square miles) and displaced tens of thousands of people.
These people are no longer evacuees … They’re refugees.
Rain is to be expected next week, but a downpour is needed to tame a monstrous fire – which is the size of Hong Kong and is almost 25% bigger than New York City – that has displaced about 88,000 people, wiped out 1,600 structures including homes, schools and hospitals, and sent plumes of smoke as far away as Iowa.
Here is a link if you want to help, please share this, this is a huge tragedy and these people need help.
These aren’t screen captions from a movie this is happening RIGHT NOW less than 1000 miles away from my own home.
To put how massive this fire is in perspective (in comparison to major cities), here are some images.
This was from May 5th
These are from today (I’m currently abroad and it’s the 8th of May but it is still the 7th else where as of posting this), and it’s expected to double in size.
This fire is expected to double in size in the next few days and possibly go into Saskatchewan which is the next province over, and it’s out of control until we hopefully get some rain early next week.
If you can donate within Canada (i’m not sure if this will work in the US or other countries) text FIRES to 45678 to donate $10 or Text REDCROSS to 30333 to donate $5.
If you want to donate and are outside of Canada, you can go to theCanadian Red Cross and donate here. Do not donate under crowdfunding sites, unfortunately there are scammers there and it’s best to donate directly to charities. The Canadian government is matching donations made to the Red Cross as well. As the OP said, if you are in Alberta and near the area and want to help by volunteering your time, Macleans has an article on where and how to help, and google will also give more information as well for what community centres in the surrounding areas need in terms of supplies
Please share and spread the word if you cannot donate.
