Канада. Ветер снова переменился.

“We do need some rain, there is no question about it. And even once we get rain, there’s still going to be a lot of fire out there and a lot of work,” said Chad Morrison, senior manager for wildfire prevention at the Government of Alberta.

“We’ll be here for weeks and weeks to put that fire out.”

 “This fire is a fuel-driven fire, which is the result of very dry conditions for a very long time. We have not seen rain in this area for the last two months, and so that’s why this fire will continue to burn for a very long time until we see significant rain,” he said.

“Once we see some rain, even then, we’re still going to need all those firefighters to get out there and put that fire out.”

Mr. Morrison added that no preventive measures could have been enough to spare Fort McMurray from this week’s precipitous evacuation.

“With the nature of this fire and the dangerous conditions we had, no firebreaks would have stopped this fire,” he said, noting that the flames managed to jump the Athabasca River, which is a kilometre-wide.

“This is an extreme, rare, rare fire event and that’s something that’s historic to us.”