Fire damages homes and property
THUNDER BAY – FIRE UPDATE – Fort McMurray is under a mandatory evacuation due to a forest fire that is raging in the area.
Fort McMurray has experienced significant loss of homes and property damage as a result of the fire.
UPDATE – Officials in Fort McMurray now report all fires inside of the city are out. The concern is that fire conditions are such that there could be flare-ups of new fires.
Fighting the fire has been made harder with high temperatures and low humidity. Temperatures were over 30c and humidity was under 15%.
There is an Open Source Facebook Page set up with added resources.
Residential Property Damage Update (May 4, 4 a.m.)
The following is an approximate overview of the damage sustained to date with the most accurate details we can provide at this point:
- Gregoire: Residences not affected
- Beacon Hill: 80 per cent loss of homes
- Abasand: Serious loss; south worse than north
- Waterways: Serious loss
- Draper: Damage under assessment
- Saline Creek: Residences not affected
- Grayling Terrace: One house lost
- Downtown: One house lost
- Thickwood: One house lost on Signal Road
- Timberlea: 12 trailers lost on Mckinlay Crescent
- Dickensfield: Two houses lost
- Wood Buffalo: Damaged, not as severe as Beacon Hill, Abasand and Waterways
While the fire has impacted oil prices, most oil sands production has been halted.
Suncor advises that as a result of the fires in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), we are focusing our attention on the safety of our people and the community. Our plant is 25 kilometres north of Fort McMurray and in a safe condition. However, we are reducing production at our regional facilities in order to allow employees and their families to get to safety.
We are working with the regional emergency response to help coordinate the evacuation efforts. Suncor employees can call the Suncor Family Response line at 1-877-285-4600.
