It took me a while, today, to decide what to write for my column. That's because I've spent a good deal of the evening catching up with and checking up on, friends who live in, or in the immediate vicinity of Fort McMurray. Those people are now in the midst of the largest wildfire evacuation in the history of our neighbour to the west.
It's never an El Nino season without a spate of wildfires terrorizing Western Canada. We've already seen a few nasty brush fires and have well-needed fire bans in certain at-risk areas, but if you check out the headlines right now, it's clear that Fort Mac is facing a disaster in a category all its own.
About 60,000 people, in what amounts to Fort McMurray's entire population, all crammed into a little river valley in the middle of the woods and muskeg, have been ordered to flee the city.
Reports from people on their way out of Fort Mac have highlighted how quickly things changed earlier this week, when intense, but, what appeared to be, controlled fires approached the city and were kept at bay. It's chilling to hear in many of the evacuees' reports, how quickly their attitude changed. It was business as usual on Tuesday morning for a lot of people in Fort McMurray, by their own accounts; and then the flames swept into the city.
It looks like we're seeing something very close to the nightmare that was Saskatchewan's brutal wildfire situation last year. As many of you can probably remember, there was a lot of relocation and evacuation going on, specifically for people in towns like La Ronge, dangerously close to where the fires were burning. If anything, this should be a warning to anyone thinking of ignoring fire bans over here: don't.
When learning about the unfolding situation I take pains to avoid the toxicity comment sections on news articles relating to events like the disaster in Fort McMurray. Inevitably there are people — presumably a great distance away from the danger of the wildfires—who start to politicize the event. To try and blame it on some misstep of the NDP, or as some roundabout condemnation of the oilsands. To that, I think everyone can agree, now is not the time.
But I'd be remiss to completely dismiss the social media activity surrounding this blaze as only cynical political yammering for the sake of yammering. In addition to news articles videos of hotels and neighbourhoods burning about the surfeit of prayers and well wishes from people all over Canada, there is a current of people looking to help out.
The denizens of the Prairies and Canada as a whole, have flocked to the "#ymmfire" hashtag with astounding alacrity in the span of mere hours. A friend of mine living in Edmonton is part of a self-organized convoy of people who've loaded up their work trucks with a lot of gasoline. He and a handful of other guys are taking it upon themselves to bring that gasoline to the many stranded drivers along the chaotic Highwy 63, who've run out of gas and have nowhere to get it, the supply quickly dropping in the area because of the immense demand and the fact that a bunch of gas stations in Fort Mac burned down.
Facebook and Twitter have been exploding and showing their usefulness as people communicate with family and friends, confirming that they are okay through those outlets. Since early this week, groups have started sprouting up all over Facebook with the specific purpose in mind of gathering provisions for people who may not have homes to return to once the flames are quenched. These aren't aid organizations either. They're regular "average Joes and Janes," stepping up and helping other people. People in the constellation of towns, villages and hamlets in northeastern Alberta between Edmonton and opening up their homes and offering a all sorts of donations of food clothing, and most important of all, shelter.
This is a mirror to the graciousness people showed, here, in Saskatchewan, last summer, helping others in need during the northern wildfires. I've seen a lot of frightening things happen over the last few years in which I've lived in the Prairies, but every time, I've also seen the selfless servitude so many people are willing to show others in their time of need - that's a reason to be proud, folks.
