The Fort Mcmurray Wildfire

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The Fort Mcmurray wildfire was the most costly Canadian disaster in history causing almost 10 billion dollars in damages. In mid 2016, a wildfire begun in southwest Fort Mcmurray, Alberta. The fire had spread across 1,500,000 acres of land. Around 3244 houses were completely burned down which caused 88,000 people to be evacuated from their homes. Fortunately, the citizens of Fort Mcmurray and surrounding settlements were well prepared as there were only 2 indirect casualties. However, if the inhabitants would not be evacuated on time, the fatality count would have been significantly higher. Our main goal is to keep the people of Canada prepared for a wildfire as it could happen almost anywhere and could affect anyone.

Around a hundred years before the Fort Mcmurray fire, another similar disaster occurred, only causing more death. The Matheson Fire was a forest fire that had made a destructive path through Iroquois Falls and Black River-Matheson in Ontario on July 29, 1916. It was common for farmers and settlers to make more land-space by burning bushes, but the summer of 1916 was hot and dry in the region with very little rainfall which caused shrubs to burn easily. Several fires that had been purposefully lit eventually formed into a single firestorm that quickly overwhelmed firefighters. The length of the fire spanned for 40 miles and in one single day it had mostly consumed the towns of Iroquois Falls, Porquis Junction, Ramore, Nushka, Matheson, and Kelse in flames. A separate fire began in Cochrane, and within hours hundreds were trapped in between. Although a majority managed to escape, the fire had caused 223 people to loose their lives. The reason that this fire had caused many people to be killed is because a lot of them weren't prepared, as emergency response was very primitive at the time. Fortunately, the Fort Mcmurray Fire wasn't the same case since all citizens were evacuated safely and quickly. May the Matheson Fire be an event that Canadians learn from now and in the future if another large scale fire were to happen again.