Canada has seen bigger wildfires, but nothing like this has ever affected a populated area. Not since the Great Fire of Valparaíso in Chile in 2014 has such a large city taken a direct hit from a wildfire. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley initially said it 'could be two weeks' before residents of Fort McMurray would be allowed to enter the city and check out if their home/business was still standing.
Now she's saying it could be - at the earliest - almost a month before anyone's allowed back in (June 1st). And by the sounds of things, they may not be permitted to return until later still.
Oddly, a 'cone of silence' was imposed on the city shortly after the wildfire forced its entire population to flee on May 3-4.
Anyone visiting Fort McMurray is required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. https://t.co/RWdEw4BdBw #wrp #bizarre #abpoli
— John Hilton-O'Brien (@hiltonjohn) May 10, 2016
Check out this clip from a video report published by Canada's Global News on May 9:
Selectively applied non-disclosure agreements? Carefully vetted media reports?
Ever since the city went up in flames, the media has repeated the Canadian authorities' claim that just 2,400 structures were destroyed, and that 90% of the city was 'saved'.
But if the city was substantially spared, why is it that "Fort McMurray is not ready to resume its role of home to anyone yet"?...
Fort McMurray faces long road to recoveryNo one is allowed in or out, and no one is allowed to report (unless without pre-approval, I presume) what they see there.
Globe and Mail, May 19, 2016
On Wednesday, access into the city remained tightly controlled, with police at exits of the main highway through town preventing vehicles from turning onto any streets unless authorized to do so.
Very strange indeed.
I wonder... is the real picture the reverse? Was something like 90% of Fort McMurray destroyed?
I am a couple of hours drive south of Ft.McMurray and have worked/visited the place many times over the past thirty years. Many people from across the country do the same thing but there are more things going on in the woods of Northern Alberta than just resource extraction.
Foreign ownership of large swaths of the tar sands is no secret but hiring only people from those foreign nations is not well publicized as you might imagine. Similarly, disputes over the land surrounding Ft.McMurray have been a hot issue for years because the land leased to producers will return many more dollars to the government than the land used to build more houses. [Link]
From the turn of last century the forests of Alberta have been home to military training camps from many allied countries and that trend continues to this day [Link] . Mossad is the first one that comes to mind because of my own personal experiences with their members here in Alberta but the U.S., Great Britain and others have large facilities tucked away up here. You don't get to see them using Google maps because you are not meant to; you have to stumble across them (which is darn near impossible but it's been done) or you pay close attention to late night conversations in area drinking spots.
Lastly, there is a lot of naturally occuring radioactive material in the ground up here; so much that people theorize that more money could be made by mining the stuff than by re-building the city of Ft. McMurray.
I cannot tell you exactly why there is such secrecy surrounding the city right now but considering all that goes on up here, both known and unknown, you can bet the fire fighters and first responders have seen some very interesting things.