GFMC: Canada
Firesin Canada
05 August 2003
Latest satellite Image:
Fires in Canada
Fires and smoke can be seen on this scene, 3 August 2003.
This image and fire detection were made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite.
Heat signatures and smoke plumes (light blue haze) are visible from fires burning in Montana and Alberta, Canada. The Wedge Canyon (22,000 acres) and the Robert Fire (19,000 acres) are burning in Flathead National Forest. The Trapper Complex Fire has scorched 19,000 acres in Glacier National Park. This information is from the National Interagency Fire Center’s Incident Management Situation Report from August 1, 2003.
Canada fires rage on
04 August 2003
Forest fires in western Canada which have forced the evacuation of thousands of people have picked up strength. Light rainfall and slower winds on the weekend had allowed firefighters to make headway against the fires raging near Kamloops, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) from Vancouver, in British Columbia. But winds picked up on Monday and with no major rainfall forecast for several days, officials say there is little prospect of relief. BBC correspondent Ian Gunn, in Vancouver, said thermal images taken from the air revealed that the worst fires had grown more than previously thought. “It’s a fluid operation and we are able to adjust on the fly,” a fire information officer for Blairmore, Alberta, Rick Strickland said. Some 1,000 Blairmore residents have been evacuated with flames at the edge of some of their properties but so far, no casualties have been reported. “This town is going to be hurting for a long time. I guess I’m lucky it’s still here,” Wayne McGregor, a resident who was allowed to return home told Reuters news agency. Fire crews were being brought in from elsewhere to help tired personnel. At least one of the blazes is thought to have been started by a discarded cigarette. Rough terrain is hampering attempts by firefighters to reach the fire itself. “This is the worst situation we’ve had and the driest circumstances that we’ve measured in the last 50 years,” British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said. “In all likelihood British Columbians have never lived through a drier forest situation than we are living through this summer.”
Source: BBC News
Forest fires ravage western Canada
04 August 2003
The Strawberry Hill fire burns across the Thompson River from Kamloops, British Columbia, Sunday in a thermal image released by Canadian forestry officials.
KAMLOOPS, British Columbia (AP) — Al Beaver has spent 30 years tracking forest fires, and he says what he sees in western Canada is unprecedented.
Hot, dry weather and gusting winds have fueled wildfires raging in British Columbia and Alberta. The fires, considered the worst in 50 years, have consumed dozens of buildings and forced 11,000 people to evacuate in mostly rural communities.
“I’ve never experienced fuels at the dryness level they are here,” Beaver said Sunday. “Right now nature is really holding all the trump cards.”
British Columbia’s two most serious fires were north and west of Kamloops in a region about 180 miles northeast of Vancouver. The larger of the two had increased from 1,987 acres early Sunday to 2,125 acres by the afternoon, as flames swept through forests and grasslands dried by a hot summer with little recent rain. Those fires aren’t huge — a fire in Montana is burning 25,000 acres — but they are threatening homes. Alberta officials ordered the evacuation of another 1,000 people from the town of Blairmore, adding to the 1,100 who already fled the region. While no deaths have been reported, British Columbia declared a state of emergency to hasten federal help, with firefighters from neighboring Alberta and Ontario provinces arriving to help battle 350 blazes. Soldiers have also been dispatched to help out. In Alberta, another cluster of fires threatened two communities in a mountainous region near the border with Montana. Fire information officer Marty O’Toole reported that flames were within five miles of the U.S. border. Plumes of smoke drifted over Kamloops as officials hurried to coordinate 700 firefighters battling blazes on the surrounding mountainsides. By nightfall, flames could be seen from the city of 80,000 that serves as administrative center and gateway to smaller resort towns of the province’s interior. “We were overwhelmed at the start of it,” Kamloops Deputy Fire Chief Dave Marcotte said Sunday. “Our resources are back up, our men are rested and we are ready to tackle anything that happens.” About 3,500 people who fled to Kamloops from the surrounding area are staying in hotels, houses and the local hockey arena, officials said. Fires still burned Sunday in downtown Barriere and two subdivisions of the community 40 miles north of Kamloops, authorities said. Jack Butcher, a Barriere rescue officer who made it back to the town Sunday, later stood outside the Kamloops evacuation center telling people what he saw. “The camper’s there but not the house,” he told one grime-covered couple. Butcher said 60 homes and several businesses were destroyed, including the lumber mill. A 53-year-old Barriere man was badly burned on the face and upper body when he stayed behind to help a neighbor protect his home. The McLure-Barriere fire was apparently started by a discarded cigarette, authorities said. Officials also reported 80 forest fires in the prairie province of Saskatchewan and 14 fires in neighboring Manitoba, including a 98,000-acre blaze near Thompson in the remote north. British Columbia officials also were monitoring a 76,000-acre fire at Farewell Creek in neighboring Washington state.
Source: CNN
Fears grow over Canada fires
04 August 2003 There is renewed concern about several major forest fires that have driven more than 10,000 people from their homes in Canada.
On Sunday officials had suggested that three fires which threatened several towns in the western province of British Columbia were calming down.
But those fires are said to be growing again and a separate fire in the Rocky Mountains, in the US state of Washington, is forcing more evacuations.
BBC correspondent Ian Gunn, in Vancouver, said thermal images taken from the air revealed that the worst fires have grown more than previously thought.
One is still approaching a suburb of Kamloops, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) from Vancouver. Kamloops is the town to which many people have been evacuated.
About 1,000 people have also been forced to evacuate their homes in the Rocky Mountains after a blaze that had seemed to be diminishing advanced on properties.
Emergency officials in British Columbia have been trying to convince evacuees that it is not yet safe to return home.
More than 70 houses and a sawmill were said to have been destroyed by one of the fires in the town of Barriere, about 180 miles (300 km) north-east of Vancouver.
No deaths have been reported, although one man, from Barriere, was severely burned after his clothes caught fire while trying to help a neighbour hose down his house, officials said.
Unpredictable
Barriere is completely surrounded by 25 square miles (65 sq km) of smoke and flame.
At least one of the blazes is thought to have been started by a discarded cigarette.
Rough terrain is hampering attempts by firefighters to reach the fire itself.
Firefighting pilots and crews had spent so much time in the air, they risked being grounded for exceeding overtime regulations.
Reinforcements have been brought in to boost firefighters on the ground, officials said.
Kamloops Deputy Fire Chief Dave Marcotte said their forces were overwhelmed at first.
“Right now our resources are back up, our men are rested and we are ready to tackle anything that happens,” he said.
Fire behaviour expert Al Beaver said a good five days of rain was needed to help stop the fires.
“I’ve never experienced fuels at the dryness level they are here,” he said.
“Right now nature is really holding all the trump cards.”
However no rain is expected for at least five or six days.
The fire has cut power to some areas of British Columbia – which is about the size of Germany and France combined – closed a major highway and halted rail services.
“This is the worst situation we’ve had and the driest circumstances that we’ve measured in the last 50 years,” British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said.
“In all likelihood British Columbians have never lived through a drier forest situation than we are living through this summer.”
SOURCE: BBC
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