In May 2016, a wildfire swept through Fort McMurray, Alberta, ruining thousands of homes and buildings, and causing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
The costliest disaster in Canada’s history, the Fort McMurray fire, also called the Horse River fire, forced an estimated 88,000 people to evacuate and caused $8.9 billion (Canadian) in damage. Starting in northeastern Alberta on May 1, 2016, the fire
In Canada, Fort McMurray's first census since the devastating 2016 wildfire suggests the region's population dropped by nearly 11 percent over a three-year span, declining from 125,032 to 111,687. As a consequence of the decline, grant funding from the provincial government will likely decrease.
Analysis of nearly 70,000 tweets sent out by evacuees escaping the Fort McMurray wildfire shows key concerns in a crisis are not being answered by current smartphone emergency apps, leaving citizens in the dark at a time of mass panic.
The fate of Fort McMurray's oldest community is on the block, as the municipality determines whether it is safe for residents to rebuild in Waterways, a flood-prone area ravaged by May's wildfire. On Monday, the Wood Buffalo municipality released the results of a survey that indicated 68 per cent of Waterways residents want to rebuild to its previous state.
This preliminary report examines, describes and interprets circumstances regarding the survival or destruction of Fort McMurray homes during the 2016 wildfires in the area. This report is intended to facilitate more fulsome deliberations among public
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Integrated Research on Disaster Risk
When disasters strike, the propensity is to put everything back as close to the way it was as quickly as possible, leading to equal or greater vulnerability. Findings from the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction's investigation of the resilience to wildfire of certain homes in Fort McMurray can aid the recovery process and help put a new paradigm in place.
It was planning, cooperation and shared resources, based on learning of past disaster, that made it possible to evacuate 88000 people north and south of Fort McMurray during the current wildfires.
It is harder to convince people to prepare for a disaster that has not happened. Until a big disaster strikes, many people have trouble listening to expert advice. When they are costly enough — either in human life or in dollars and cents — governments are forced by public opinion to try to prevent similar disasters from happening again.
Once rare events, mega-fires have now become common largely because of climate change and because effective wildfire suppression over decades has caused fuel to build up in the forests. There are more – and probably bigger fires to come.
