This is an interesting happening, on several levels, and I had to decide which catagory was the best to post the story in. It seems early in the year for wildfires to be starting already, and you would think that it would still be cold that far north in Canada. Almost 100,000 people around Ft. McMurray have already been evacuated, and then another fire started pretty much directly west of there in British Columbia. One intersting thing about both of these fires is that they are located close to an oil supply, or processing plant. With the prices of oil dropping so low for imported oil, it kind of makes you wonder if somebody "over there" wants to slow down our oil production over in this part of the world. Both fires seem to have started almost spontaneously, and almost at the same time. However, there is yet another interesting aspect to these fires ! I was just watching the video that Dutchsinse put out about the wildfires, and he is showing that they are actually not that far from the tectonic plate that runs through that area. It IS possible that this has caused the ground to be extra hot along the plate line, and that this is what has caused the fires. We had a similar thing happen in southern Idaho last summer (and possibly in other areas as well), where the ground had heated up, and caused forest fires in the area. I remember reading an article about a man who lived in the area, and was walking along one of the trails that he often walked on with his dogs. There were hot springs in that area, and his dog happily jumped into the hot spring as they were walking by, and the dog was killed because the water in the springs had heated up way beyond normal, and it burned the dog. The hiker also was badly burned trying to save his dog, but was able to call for help on his cell phone. Apparently, the water, which was usually only barely warm, had been heated from the underground magma moving around. The Forest Service said that they believe that this is also what caused some of the numerous forest fires in that area last summer.
I follow Heartland (a Canadian horse ranch show on CBC) on Twitter, which is how I first heard about the wildfires in Alberta. The show is set in Alberta, and they are doing a really nice offering of a site visit on the show's set for 4, as an incentive for donations to the Ft. McMurray wildfire assistance fund. The province of Alberta and the government of Canada have pledged to match the funds collected. The total tickets sold will be 1,000, x $10, x 3 (original donation, plus matching funds from each of the governments), so the total, if all of the tickets are purchased, will be $30,000. Here's a link, in case anyone's interested in donating. I'm sure there are other collections going on as well, but this one piqued my interest, since it relates to Heartland. https://www.facebook.com/cbcheartland/posts/10153443017120443 Incidentally, I believe at least some of the Heartland episodes are available on Netflix, in case anyone's interested, but can't get CBC.
Yeah, those fires are huge. They are reported to be the size of Rhode Island. I think residents of the area are being looked after fortunately. I wonder what the cause of the fire was, if they have any idea. It could have been anything from arson to a lightning strike I suppose. it may come out as some point after the fire has been put out, and everyone is safe.
Here is yet another very interesting development from the Ft. McMurray fires. Now, they are making any person from any kind of news media that goes into the area where the fires were, sign a non-disclosure agreement. Any video that is shot inside the area has to be inspected for content before it can be taken out or used in any way. People are still wondering what caused this fire, and thus far, there has not seemed to be any definite answer forthcoming. If it was something simple, like a campfire that got out of control, or even a carelessly dropped cigarette, there would be no reason for the non-disclosure agreement to be put in place. Another possible cause for the fire (which I may have mentioned in another thread) is the possibility of one of these asteroids/meteorites/fireballs that have been being seen right now, might have struck in that area and caused the fire. This is an interesting short video with a link to the news coverage about the non-disclosure and not taking videos out.
I suppose the truth will come about it at some point. These are the types of things that come about once all the evidence has been collected and people get a chance to look at all of the data to make sure that they have all the facts before they are making a conclusion. The cause is something arson investigators will probably be evaluating for months. They won't say anything until the data has been synthesized.