The Alberta wildfire happened in May 2016. Alberta has an area of 660,000 kilometres squared of which the fire had burned down an area of 1.5 million acres. The cause of the fire is unknown but the conditions were unusual. Unusually high temperatures of greater than 30 degrees, high winds and an early snowfall meant that litter was unusually dry.
Impacts
- 0 deaths,
- Two indirect deaths as a result of smoke inhalation,
- 85,000 people evacuated,
- Of which 5000 people never came back,
- 3400 buildings destroyed,
- Shell Canada had to evacuate 1500 workers after 900 sites were burnt costing 1 billion Canadian dollars.
Responses
- The Alberta government deployed the army to aid evacuations and to fight the blaze
- Gave $1250 per person for recovery
- Red Cross received $50 million in donations from around the world
- Many returned in June with the Prime Minister pledging for a successful recovery