Post: #26

That is exactly what I meant!

Post: #27

There's a job posting I saw today for an IT position in Fort Mac.... Now I'm wondering if it would be in bad taste to apply.

Post: #28

(05-06-2016 05:20 AM)Chargeshot Wrote:  I have heard, though its not certain, that it is impossible to get fire insurance in that region.

Untrue. I have family that's very deep in the insurance industry. Like more letters after their name than in it. Intact alone has 2800 clients pending there. Billions upon billions will be paid out there and the company stock prices are already taking a beating knowing what's going to pay out. Figure $300k average for a house plus contents. Likely $600k a property. Times 2800. Two billion there just for one company. And that's only property. You haven't paid out for a car, quad, boat, etc. yet either. There are lots of those in FMc; there's nothing else to spend money on there other than cocaine.

Fire is fire, it's not an Act of God. Even if it's an arson, the only property that wouldn't get paid out is the original site. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, else is a claim pending and cheques are already being thrown about by the companies.

Post: #29

Post: #30

Hi guys, as most of you have seen from the news, the wild fires are still raging up there and have expanded in size. I've been pretty busy helping my buddy out and now he's flying back to the east coast where he'll stay until his work needs him back, he really has no idea when that will be. Here's some things I learned over the past few days:

Oil companies response: The oil companies really stepped up to help out their employees and also the citizens who had to flee. My buddy works a 7 day on, 7 day off rotation and owns a house in Fort Mac, he was working when the fires spread so was at his camp but he decided to drive into the city (1 hour away) to hang out with friends that night but got caught up in the evacuation. Over the next two days his company took in 20,000 stranded people to their camp and he helped out a lot by getting people food, water, etc. The oil company has a private airstrip and planes which were used to fly the evacuees to Edmonton. My buddy said the scene at the camp was intense, lots of people crying, kids being confused and crying and screaming, pets shitting and pissing everywhere and families sleeping on gym mats in the arena. Overall though, the oil company did a lot, they gave the people as much as they could and safely got them out.

Private Industry: Local businesses in Edmonton are really stepping up, many are giving big discounts at retail stores, some up to 75% for the evacuees. We had supper last night at O2s on Whyte Avenue and they comped our food.

This is such as massive thing that the insurance companies don't even know how they will handle it, we met a guy who said that his insurance provider is cutting him a cheque for $5000 to get him through the month as its going to take a few weeks to figure out what they'll do! There's a big complex at the Northlands Centre in Edmonton where insurance companies and resource providers (Red Cross, Alberta Social Services, etc) have set up shop to help people out. As far as I can tell, the evacuees are being well taken care of overall.

I think that a lot of people, like my buddy are leaving Alberta to go back to where they came from to stay with friends and family until the situation is sorted out. The fires are still raging and the city is completely fucked so they don't have much to go back to. Another friend of mine is a school teacher up there and its really hit him hard as he's very committed/invested to the city and knows lots of people, he's thinking about all of his current students who won't be able to finish their school year, two schools have burned there. There will be tons of sad stories on the news and if you're in Canada, you'll probably hear about a few through friends, family, etc.

Fort McMurray really is a unique place because people from all over Canada and the world came to work there, almost everyone, especially from small towns in Canada where the economies aren't so great knows someone who works or has worked up there. Being an East Coaster, as I mentioned in my first post on this thread, I have a ton of friends and colleagues who were up there, now they're all scattered across the country and don't know when, if ever, they'll go back.

The future of Fort McMurray: This is the most interesting and stressful part and its really hard to guess what will happen. Fort Mac went through an explosive growth period from about 2000-2014, it was insanely busy there and housing prices went through the roof, to get an idea of what I mean, you can search the city on MLS Canada and see that a trailer in a park goes for $350-500,000 and a starter attached house for $450-700,000. The city hit some hard economic times over the past couple of years since the oil market crashed and many people were stressed out because they had negative equity in their homes. For many, although this crisis is extremely hard on them, some see it as a blessing in disguise as the people who lost their homes will get the insurance money and can relocate elsewhere and for those with homes still standing, market forces will likely see them get a huge increase in the price of their house and probably sell and relocate too.

Since the town is empty and many oil sands operations are shut down, the labour force on those sites will likely go completely fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) in the short term, say 1-2 years. This was a major concern for the city before as the FIFO was having negative impacts on the city and the oil companies were encouraged to hire a local work force. Now that the workforce will be entirely FIFO and many oil sands workers will be based in Calgary or Edmonton, its hard to say how the city will go forth with development.

As for myself, I have a few weeks of work at a refinery in Edmonton but after that I'm not sure as I was supposed to start a 2/2 FIFO rotation in Fort McMurray but I was to live at a company condo in the city, I'm not sure if they'll put us in camps instead or what's going to happen, honestly I"m not sure that I'd want to live there in the short term as it'll be a difficult place to be in since half of the place is burnt to the ground and things like grocery stores, restaurants and other services won't be available. I"m not too worried though and am more concerned for the residents who are homeless and jobless. I may even pack up my car and head east to look for work out there to get me through until things are sorted out there, it will be an interesting time for sure.

Post: #31

Barry LeDuc Wrote:Just about every northern community has somewhat of a forest harvesting industry operating close by. Local authorities should make clear cutting a significant boundary around every community a priority. If a three- to five-kilometre zone was cleared of all coniferous trees and only deciduous trees, such as aspen, poplar and birch, were allowed to re-establish, future wild fire issues could be precluded. Why government agencies have not been ensuring that forestry companies make this a priority is incomprehensible.

Barry LeDuc, Timmins, Ont.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-commen...f-fort-mac

I'm hearing this sentiment a lot right now from my family and friends, some of whom are construction contractors and oil patch workers. The sentiment that is rising is anger. Anger over the fact that "a three- to five-kilometre zone", as described above by Mr. LeDuc, was NOT established for the safety of the city and its residents. The general consensus is that the reason such a zone was not established is because moonbat liberals actively oppose the clear-cutting that would have to take place. So in a fucked up way, climate change DID contribute to the risk of this fire... climate change hysteria that is. If only they'd just built more wind turbines...

Post: #32

The Globe and Mail Wrote:The Trudeau government has yet to respond to an offer by Russia to dispatch massive water bombers and fire fighting specialists to battle the growing inferno around Fort McMurray, Alta.

The proposal was made late last week by Vladimir Puchkov, the Russian minister of emergency measures.

A spokesman for Russia’s embassy in Ottawa, Kirill Kalinin, said Sunday that they continue to stand “ready to help our Canadian partners to fight the ongoing wildfires in Alberta.”

The offer involves sending converted Ilyushin Il-76 transport planes — the kind occasionally leased by the Canadian military — that can dump as much as “42 tons of fire retardant into fire spots,” according to a statement on the web site of Russia’s Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters.

In addition, Moscow said it has “rescuers and specialists with necessary equipment” ready to help on the ground, if need be.

There has been a diplomatic chill between Canada and Russia since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, but since the election the Liberal government has said it wanted a constructive relationship with President Vladimir Putin’s government.

Speaking on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the fire, which is expected to cover up to 3,000 square kilometres by the end of the day, continues to grow. But he made no mention of the Russian overture — or any other potential pitch of international assistance.

“It’s big. It’s out of control and the end is not in sight,” Goodale told the news program.

The Department of Global Affairs was asked about the Kremlin’s offer and whether other countries had extended similar proposals, but no one was immediately available to comment.

Canadian officials did tell Russian media that the proposal was being studied.

At least 27 air tankers and 15 helicopters are involved in fighting the wildfire that has driven over 88,000 people from their homes in the oil patch community.

Goodale was also not prepared Sunday to call out the army to join the over 600 firefighters from Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick who have been part of the effort to contain the blaze, the origins of which remain a mystery.

Troops were deployed last year to help contain a massive woodland blaze in Saskatchewan, but Goodale said Sunday it was best to leave the current disaster to full-time firefighters.

“This is a beast of a fire and it needs the most professional fighters to contend with it,” he said.

The air force, meanwhile, deployed one of its new heavy-lift battlefield helicopters Sunday for the first time in support of the disaster relief operation. The CH-147F Chinook took two loads of food, medicine and emergency supplies to a First Nations community 50 kilometres outside of Fort McMurray.

It bolsters the existing four CH-146 Griffons and the one C-130J Hercules, which have been involved since midway through last week.

The Chinook, with its 36,700 kilogram load capacity, is an important addition for moving relief supplies quickly into remote area, said Maj. Gord Gushue, the deputy commander of the air task force supporting the operation.

He said the skies around the wildfire are already pretty congested and military pilots have had to take care.

“You can appreciate that the (civilian pilots) might be running a bucket ops where they scoop up water and move it around, going up and down quite a ways. So, they have to be very careful to make sure no one is flying underneath them — or overhead,” Gushue said in an interview from Edmonton.

The pilots have faced some pretty severe smoke conditions that in one case saw a Griffon helicopter take off from Fort McMurray and fly out using instruments because the conditions were so bad.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...e29935985/

Post: #33

(05-05-2016 12:27 PM)Gustavus Adolphus Wrote:  Anybody heard from DannyAlberta? Do we have other guys on the forum from there that can give us any info?

If you're reading this DA, let us know if you we can help out in any way. Godspeed.

I'm ok, given that I live in Calgary, although as you might imagine I've been very busy the last 6 days as a portion of my business if from Ft. McMurray.

Many people haven't been so lucky. Please donate to the Canadian Red Cross if you can.

Post: #34

Thanks for the update Scotian, wish you and your mates the best in this time of hell.


What's up with Trudeau's response to all of this ?

He dresses up in people's traditional garb, will he dress up as a firefighter on the line ?

Post: #35

Hell no - the only thing that fuck can do is teach drama classes. Nice how Notley slashed the wildfire budget a week before this all happened. This country sucks sometimes man. The people are good though. Fort Mac has a bad name among other municipalities in Canada because its where all the 'rig pigs go to snort blow and smoke crack'. While I won't deny that we play hard up here at times, its a wonderful community and its heartbreaking to see good people lose everything. The response of Albertans and other Canadians around the country is a beacon of hope however, and it has been nice to see the country rally around Northern Alberta in light of everything that has happened in the last year or so (oil price plummeting, climate terrorists, NDP takeover etc.). Resiliency is a trait common to Northern Canadians and in Fort Mac it won't be any different (in my best trailer park voice, 'we gon' rebuild'). Thanks everyone for the kind words and support, its been an emotional few days but the sun comes up, insurance will pay out, work will start again, and the sympathy sex has been pretty unreal haha.

I don't need money but if you are opening the wallet, the Canadian Red Cross is where to do it --- Trudeau has stated whatever the Red Cross has raised thus far will be matched by the government. Thanks again brothers.

Post: #36

Rex Murphy is much more eloquent than I am. I'll simply say I agree with him 100% here.

Post: #37

Looks like "Brilliant" females involved in the budgeting and Water Bomber contracts process and decided it was not a priority when the fire was rapidly approaching Ft Mac - should be horse whipped, tarred and feathered and then prosecuted for dereliction of duty:

SHOCKING: Here’s why Canada’s largest water bomber wasn’t “available” in Fort Mac

Published on May 9, 2016
https://youtu.be/JNhZnfyaC3U

Sheila Gunn Reid looks into the question many are asking about why the Martin Mars, Canada’s largest water bomber, wasn't made available in the devastating Fort Mac wildfire nicknamed “The Beast” by Fort Mac fire chief Darby Allen. To find out exactly what happened, tune into Sheila's video. As always, she has the facts.

Post: #38

(05-09-2016 06:16 PM)Deepdiver Wrote:  Looks like "Brilliant" females involved in the budgeting and Water Bomber contracts process and decided it was not a priority when the fire was rapidly approaching Ft Mac - should be horse whipped, tarred and feathered and then prosecuted for dereliction of duty:

SHOCKING: Here’s why Canada’s largest water bomber wasn’t “available” in Fort Mac

Published on May 9, 2016
https://youtu.be/JNhZnfyaC3U

Sheila Gunn Reid looks into the question many are asking about why the Martin Mars, Canada’s largest water bomber, wasn't made available in the devastating Fort Mac wildfire nicknamed “The Beast” by Fort Mac fire chief Darby Allen. To find out exactly what happened, tune into Sheila's video. As always, she has the facts.

Yeah... That bit of news is spreading around pretty quick in Alberta. My brother says a lot of people are really pissed when they find that out. My bet is after this the NDP will elect from one of the two conservative parties again.

Post: #39

Quebec dispatched four Canadair CL-415 Super Scoopers to Fort Mac earlier last week. C-130s aren't water scoopers, so they are less efficient (unless the water source is pretty far from the fire).

So reportedly 20% of the city has burned down. What is the latest human toll, hopefully still down to 2 deaths?

Post: #40

This looks pretty awful.

Post: #41

Some choice memes from r/the_donald: