Alberta Wildfire CS (Autosaved) PDF

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5.4 Fires in nature – The Alberta Wildfire case study Objective: to develop a detailed understanding of one recent wildfire event 1.Describe the spatial and temporal setting of the event Where did the wildfire start? Identify and describe the location of the wildfire(s) – include a map with relevant labels/captions and describe the situation of the fire. Link to impacts, preparedness, mitigation. How quickly did the fire spread? Over what areas and timescales? Link to severity of impact. Use location maps to describe the areal extent of the wildfire. The fire was 60,000ha – about the area of Norfolk in the UK. How does this compare with a) other Canadian wildfires, b) other wildland fires, particularly those on the ‘wildland interface’, ie where rural and urban areas meet? 2.Describe and explain the association of the event to weather and climate conditions. What was the magnitude and intensity? Which plate boundaries were involved? How fast were they both moving? Does this area typically experience many earthquakes? Of what scale? Link this to earthquake preparedness or adaptation. Refer to your plate boundaries map and useful diagrams e.g. of plate movements or draw your own. Link: to El Nino and climate change 3. Assess the perception of the event, and the factors affecting those perceptions at a range of scales – eg, magnitude, frequency, population characteristics etc. Account for the death toll and numbers injured (in each location). Were people prepared? Were some areas/communities better prepared than others? Did they expect it? When was the last wildfire in the area or province of Canada? Link S&T aspect to preparedness. What was the cultural and socio-economic dimension affecting perception? 4. Explain the causes of the event Why did this particular wildfire occur? What were the human and physical causes? Explain them. Were a mixture of reasons to blame? To what extent was El Nino responsible? To what extent could a warmer and earlier spring be responsible for the fire? What made the event so unpredictable/severe? 5. Explain and assess the impacts of the event – includes generic example! Explain the primary and secondary impacts of the Alberta wildfire. Assess them. Which were most/least significant and why? Make use of further web articles in the bibliography and PowerPoint – the main handout only introduces the impacts at a basic level. Include social, economic and environmental impacts e.g. ‘the most significant impact was the primary impact of X thousand deaths. This is chiefly a social impact; families will be permanently affected through deaths and injuries and potentially living in fear long after the event….. Make LINKS: assess the impacts on the water and carbon cycle and the coniferous (Boreal) forest ecosystem.

Skill: Use photos to help outline the social, economic and environmental impacts of the wildfire 6.Explain, assess and justify the response to the event including the factors affecting this response. What were the immediate and longer term responses? Link to: mitigation, preparedness and prevention and adaptation. Where has the risk been to modify the loss, modify the vulnerability or modify the event? Explain how they worked. Did they work? Assess the effectiveness of responses? Why? Decide whether the rescue, relief, rebuilding and longer term reconstruction has been effective? Was Alberta already quite resilient to wildfires? What is being put in place to increase resilience and decrease vulnerability to severe impacts (note: risk cannot be reduced to zero!) Justify why the authorities responded as they did? If responses were limited, was this primarily Bansi Mehta

about money? Were responses adequate from the authorities? Local residents? Emergency services? Was there an international response? Why/why not? What were the rebuilding priorities for residents of Fort McMurray? Were they as well supported in the recovery phase as they had been during the evacuation and emergency response phase? LINK: To the hazard response or Park response cycle. Link to the wider economic context for Canada/USA. CONC: are the Alberta authorities and local residents now better prepared against future wildfires? Also LINK back to the Park and Hazard Response models. Have you used your vocab, key and command words sheets? Have you used your case study sheet? Are you mindful of your ‘next steps’ from your last case study?

Reading material – Alberta wildfires See some teacher notes (emailed) to show you how the information has been classified into causes, effects, management. Focus Likely URL uses Q1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36212145 Causes e.g. Q2 impact of El Nino A range of useful links at end of article Impacts and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/alberta-wildfire-oil-fort5, 6 management mcmurray-evacuations during fire Financial impact, implications for insurance (modify loss) Reconstructi on spending – rebuilding Wildfire management in Alberta – a comprehensi ve guide to the methods used You Tube playlist – mainly the impacts

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http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/alberta-fires-may-be-worsefor-canadian-insurance-companies-than-hurricane-katrina-was-for-u-sdevastation-is-unprecedented/wcm/fc923de6-b3e6-4546-aa65-df9e574ec329

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-rebuildinggdp-1.3850758

6 links to Wildfire management in Alberta 5 via impact mitigatio n etc

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist? list=PLByp9p2moztJNQPSxxdPFS2sHTBJSD_K8

Article LINKING to disaster insurance costs rising in Canada in 2016 Aerial photos of fire Alberta’s emergency management agency BBC Article – during the wildfire Financial impact analysis of the Alberta wildfire The need for a return to disaster prevention funding Alberta Wildfire Alberta Wildfire status map Satellite imagery Wildfire scale

6& good for LINKS

http://globalnews.ca/news/3164443/natural-disasters-canada-insuranceclaims-2016/

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3574337/Amazing-aerial-shotsmassive-scale-Alberta-wildfire.html http://aema.alberta.ca/assistance-and-recovery-support

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Personal preparedness test for emergencies? http://albertaready.aema.alberta.ca/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36209649

https://www.nbc.ca/content/dam/bnc/en/rates-and-analysis/economicanalysis/special-report-10may2016.pdf

http://globalnews.ca/news/2683824/premiers-call-for-return-of-disasterprevention-funding-amid-alberta-wildfires/

http://wildfire.albert`a.ca/ http://wildfire.alberta.ca/wildfire-status/status-map.aspx

https://weather.com/safety/wildfires/news/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-from-spaceimages http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/06/fort-mcmurray-firemaps_n_9857952.html

Reminders: As with all recent case studies, there is a need to keep up to date with your revision notes. Latest updates – management and disaster planning e.g. resilience building. How is Alberta recovering now? Is it a quick or slow recovery? Which aspects are quicker and which are slower? (you will be assessing!)

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5.4 Fires in nature – The Alberta Wildfire case study 1.Describe the spatial and temporal setting of the event The Alberta wildfire started on the first of May 2016 and began at the southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The wildfire spread across northern Alberta and into Saskatchewan and burnt 589,552 hectares (1,456,810 acres) in total. Fort McMurray is a population centre, classified as an urban service area, in the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. In total the wildfire burned 589,552 hectares (1,456,810 acres). At this point the fire has grown to 85,000 hectares on the Thursday of the wildfire and this was how large the fire had spread in comparison to the city of London, which shows a mass scale for just a few day which indicates a fast spreading fire. After sweeping through Fort McMurray, the wildfire destroyed approximately 2,400 homes and buildings. Another 2,000 residents in three communities were displaced after their homes were declared unsafe for reoccupation due to contamination. It continued to spread across northern Alberta and into Saskatchewan, consuming forested areas and impacting Athabasca oil sands operations. The fire spread 589,552 hectares (1,456,810 acres), before it was declared to be under control on July 5, 2016. It continued to smoulder, and was fully extinguished on August 2, 2017. In the past, the Chinchaga fire, also known as the Wisp fire or the Chinchaga River fire, was a forest fire that burned in northern British Columbia and Alberta in the summer and early fall of 1950. With a final size of between 1,400,000 hectares (3,500,000 acres) and 1,700,000 hectares (4,200,000 acres), it is the single largest recorded fire in North American history. The fire was allowed to burn freely, a result of local forest management policy and the lack of settlements in the region. The Chinchaga fire produced large amounts of smoke, creating the "1950 Great Smoke Pall", observed across eastern North America and Europe. Comparing the Alberta wildfire to this one it does not seem has large as this burnt about 3 times more acres and the smoke travelled to Europe, however this wildfire was burnt freely which would allow it to burn over a wider area. The Fort McMurray wildfire has very severe impacts compared to other natural disasters in Canada, as it has been the costliest for insurance providers, costing $3.7 billion which is $2.5 million more than the second most expensive, the Quebec ice storm.

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2.Describe and explain the association of the event to weather and climate conditions. El Niño and ongoing climate change have both contributed to the devastating Alberta. The weather phenomenon has caused much drier conditions than normal, leading to a massive increase in the number of fires in the province. The El Nino weather system has led to drier than normal conditions in Alberta and neighbouring Saskatchewan. Unseasonably high temperatures and strong winds have combined with those conditions to leave much of those provinces under an extreme fire risk warning. The strong winds fans the flame to drive the flame frontward and much faster so that it prevents a convection column from forming. Weather conditions in Western Canada were perfect for wildfires as the warm, dry winter has led to an abundance of dead, dry leaves and wood ready to light up. There has been low humidity and lack of green vegetation combined with windy conditions contributed to the incredibly intense fire in the northern Alberta city. The conditions that preceded the start of this fire were quintessential wildfire conditions: a

seemingly endless supply of dry fuel on the forest floor and in the canopy, and intense heat. All that was needed was a spark, which was assumed to be a human cause as there was no lightning. The mature conifer forest in northern Alberta, as with most of the boreal forest, are black spruce or jack pine. At their driest in May, these fuels have the greatest crown fuel load and can support active crown fire. Crown fires are very hazardous as they burn through the top layer of foliage which after it combusted it generates temperatures of 1100 Celcius. Crown fires affect the whole forest and are the most intense and difficult to contain. 3. Assess the perception of the event, and the factors affecting those perceptions at a range of scales – eg, magnitude, frequency, population characteristics etc. Following the start of the wildfire at Fort McMurray, other towns also began to prepare for evacuation after the approximate 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray that had been evacuated out. Alberta and Canada have frequent wildfires, so residents were aware of what they are and the damage it can do. Canada are very prone to wildfires because of the boreal landscape which has a lot of fuel, producing a lot more severe wildfires. However, wildfires can spread unpredictably, as the crown of fires can spread over huge distances which can be tracked, making it hard to predict where the fire will spread to next, so evacuation actually occurred in areas after the wildfire hit them. 4. Explain the causes of the event El Niño and ongoing climate change have both contributed to the devastating Alberta. The weather phenomenon has caused much drier conditions than normal, leading to a massive increase in the number of fires in the province. The El Nino weather system has led to drier than normal conditions in Alberta and neighbouring Saskatchewan. Unseasonably high temperatures and strong winds have combined with those conditions to leave much of those provinces under an extreme fire risk warning. The strong winds fans the flame to drive the flame frontward and much faster so that it prevents a convection column from forming. Weather conditions in Western Canada were perfect for wildfires as the warm, dry winter has led to an abundance of dead, dry leaves and wood ready to light up. There has been low humidity and lack of green vegetation combined with windy conditions contributed to the incredibly intense fire in the northern Alberta city. The conditions that preceded the start of this fire were quintessential wildfire conditions: a seemingly

endless supply of dry fuel on the forest floor and in the canopy, and intense heat. All that was needed was a spark, which was assumed to be a human cause as there was no lightning. The mature conifer forest in northern Alberta, as with most of the boreal forest, are black spruce or jack pine. At their driest in May, these fuels have the greatest crown fuel load and can support active crown fire. Crown fires are very hazardous as they burn through the top layer of foliage which after it combusted it generates temperatures of 1100 Celcius. Crown fires affect the whole forest and are the most intense and difficult to contain. Bansi Mehta

A 12-month long drought in the northern part of the state that has dried out the brush that underlies the forest creating brush fuel that is highly inflammable and a thick layer that may be extinguished on the surface but keep smouldering beneath. And the winter of 2015-16 has seen relatively little snow that, normally at this time of the year, would be melting and keeping the ground surface moist. Very high temperatures into the mid to upper 20's C in had dried the vegetation further of any remaining surface moisture. Strong southeasterly winds blew from the interior of the continent drying material further, providing oxygen once a fire ignites and blowing cinders downwind to create fire-spread over a wide area. During the start of the fire, a hot, dry air mass was in place over Northern Alberta, which brought recordsetting temperatures to Fort McMurray. On May 3, the temperature climbed to 32.8 °C, accompanied by relative humidity as low as 12%. The situation intensified on May 4 when temperatures reached 31.9 °C and winds speed to 72 km/h. This significantly contributed to the fire's rapid growth. The winter preceding the fires was drier than usual, leaving a paltry snowpack, which melted quickly. Combined with the high temperatures, this created a "perfect storm" of conditions for an explosive wildfire. El Niño has been quite responsible for the extent of how severe the wildfire was. As a result of the El Niño conditions, there was drier climate, drier soil as there was not enough snow to melt, to make the soil moist, and the higher temperatures which provides a lot of energy. Because of the lack of green vegetation and dry soil, there was a greater supply of dry fuel to cause the wildfire to be much greater. Without the El Niño, there may have been a much cooler season, with snow in the winter to then melt in spring to create a moist soil, preventing dry fuel, and more cooler temperatures, which could have lessened the effects of the wildfire from the initial spark. The fire also increased in intensity as when it was already burning through Fort McMurray, the weather became significantly worse as the temperatures went upwards of 28C and winds gusting up to 25mph (40kmh).

5. Explain and assess the impacts of the event – includes generic example!

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The wildfire destroyed approximately 2,400 homes and buildings. Another 2,000 residents in three communities were displaced after their homes were declared unsafe for reoccupation due to contamination. Beacon hill lost 476 residential homes, waterways lost 236k, Absand lost 1168 and Anzac lost 12. The Fort McMurray wildfire has very severe impacts compared to other natural disasters in Canada, as it has been the costliest for insurance providers, costing $3.7 billion which is $2.5 million more than the second most expensive, the Quebec ice storm.

At a rough estimate, the fire will have resulted in a few million tonnes of CO2 emitted. That compares to Alberta’s 274m tonnes in 2014 — the majority of which is from the province’s energy sector. CO2 emissions from the fire are not expected to be significant on a global scale but is of still a large environmental impact. There is little doubt the fire would have mobilised contaminants, with mercury, other heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) deposited on trees and soils, making the smoke potentially more toxic than a normal forest fire. Even worse were the toxins released by burning the 2,400 buildings and their contents. There’s a lot of stuff like housing shingles, cars, couches and so on that produce a wide range of toxins including mercury, lead and organic compounds. People in Fort McMurray at the height of the fire were likely “breathing lungfuls of toxins.” The smoke from the fires has travelled across the US to the Gulf coast, 3,400 km away. Fires are a known hazard mainly because small particles can damage lungs. This is a social and possibly an economic impact if many have been affected badly by the toxins, expensive healthcare will be needed to be provided, which will cause a lot of stress on the people when they are also dealing with their lost homes and buildings. Al mos tt heent i r eFor tMc Mur r a yar eawaspl ac edunderaboi l wat eradvi s or ydur i ngt hefi r e.Aboi l wat eradvi s or yorboi l wat eror deri sapubl i cheal t hadv i s or yordi r ec t i v e gi v enbygov er nmentorheal t haut hor i t i est ocons umer swhenac ommuni t y ' sdr i nki ngwat eri s ,orcoul dbe, c ont ami nat edbypat hogens. This means that water have been contaminated, which can be at risk to those

who don’t boil the water, affecting their health. About 47 million barrels of oil production worth $1.4 billion was also lost. On May 7, Syncrude shut down all site and processing operations, removing 4,800 employees from the area. A quarter of Canada's oil production, equal to approximately one million barrels of oil a day, was halted as a result of the fire. The lost output is estimated to cost the Albertan economy $70 million per day, and was a contributing factor to rises in global oil prices. The scaled back operations, along with a refinery outage in Edmonton, caused many gas stations to run out of gas throughout Western Canada. This is important economically and socially. It has impacted in an economical way, as the Oil produced in Alberta was one of their main commodities, employing a large population and contributing a lot of income into the area, however now that 47 million barrels have been lost and removing employees from the area, Alberta will lose out on a high proportion of inflow money to support the economy and many have lost their jobs, meaning their personal income will be on halt for a while, causing stress for people socially and financially. The $70 million per day that has been lost could have been used to help to re build and re construct the areas devastated by the wildfire or help the locals. It has also socially impacted on a wider scale affecting other areas of Canada as gas sta...