Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and a small group of media got a chance to get a closer look on Monday at the damage caused by a destructive wildfire that roared through the oil town of Fort McMurray last Tuesday forcing all of its inhabitants to flee.
Images of the tour broadcast live by several Canadian television channels showed block after block of burnt out shells of houses turned into piles of ash, with charred remains of cars parked in the driveways or left abandoned in ditches along the road in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood.
beacon hill. Many homes have been incinerated. pic.twitter.com/sdVYjdSjK8
— Briar Stewart (@briarstewart) May 9, 2016
Beacon Hill was one of the hardest hit neighbourhoods of Fort McMurray, with about 70 per cent of houses lost to the flames. Fort McMurray fire chief Darby Allen who joined the bus tour said at points firefighters had to make a strategic decision to abandon certain residential areas where the fire was spreading too fast to concentrate on saving the infrastructure in the downtown.
Again, fire chief says about 85 percent of structures in #ymm were saved pic.twitter.com/NyORFDdMYG — Briar Stewart (@briarstewart) May 9, 2016
Firefighters managed to save about 85 per cent of the downtown, Allen said.
“Significant stops were made on the fourth or fifth day to ensure that our downtown infrastructure was not impacted and that it remains intact,” Allen said. “We are proud of everybody who has worked on this fire. And we want to let our citizens know that home is still here and as soon as we can get you back we will.”
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