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Fort McMurray wildfire ‘a full-on disaster in every sense’

By Oliver Johnson | May 6, 2016

Estimated reading time 11 minutes, 36 seconds.

 The view from the hangar at Phoenix Heli-Flight as smoke plumes up from the wildfire engulfing Fort McMurray. Ryan Tyler Photo
The view from the hangar at Phoenix Heli-Flight as smoke plumes up from the wildfire engulfing Fort McMurray. Ryan Tyler Photo
Following days of high winds and scorching heat, the wildfire that has engulfed Fort McMurray has grown to an estimated 85,000 hectares (210,000 acres), having destroyed at least 1,600 homes and forcing 80,000 people to evacuate the northern Albertan city.

The sheer scale and speed of the fire, which was moving at up to 15 meters per minute, forced surrounding oil field work camps and communities that had welcomed evacuees to then issue their own evacuation orders Thursday, as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley declared a state of emergency.

Fort McMurray-based operator Phoenix Heli-Flight was among the last to leave the besieged city on Wednesday, having spent the previous five days battling the various fires that emerged on the outskirts, before assisting in the evacuation when the city imposed the mandatory order for residents to leave.

Paul Spring, the company’s president, has been fighting wildfires as a pilot for more than 30 years. He established Phoenix in the city in 1992 with one leased aircraft, growing it to a fleet of 10 that, with its distinctive flaming bird livery, has become of the most instantly-recognizable presences in the helicopter industry. It has also become an integral part of its community — perhaps best represented in the form of its EC135 T2e. Having offered an ad hoc medevac service to the Fort McMurray region for 20 years, Spring bought the aircraft with the designated purpose of serving as the region’s first dedicated HEMS helicopter in 2014 — funded through the Local HERO Foundation.

The EC135 T2e has been flying a steady stream of medevac operations since the fires broke out, and was used extensively during the evacuation of Fort McMurray’s hospital.

“We evacuated the hospital three days ago under all the ash and ember,” Spring told Vertical on Thursday. “There were guys on the roof with hoses trying to keep the hospital from going up in flames. They were in the parking lot, moving an intubated ICU patient into the helicopter so they could fly into an airdrome and get a medevac aircraft out.”

The majority of the hospital’s patients and staff — estimated by Spring to number between 700 to 800 — were taken out of the city by bus, but Phoenix assisted in moving some of most vulnerable patients to safety.

The operator is currently based at an oil field camp 100 kilometers south of Fort McMurray, having been forced from its base and hangars adjacent to Fort McMurray International Airport shortly before the fire overwhelmed the area.

The fire approaches Phoenix's two hangars near the Fort McMurray International Airport, shortly before the company evacuated to a work camp outside the city. Ryan Tyler Photo
The fire approaches Phoenix’s two hangars near the Fort McMurray International Airport, shortly before the company evacuated to a work camp outside the city. Ryan Tyler Photo

“When the fire went to a full column, we said it’s time to go,” said Spring. “We’d already got some things out of there and we’d been fireproofing the yard — so clearing anything that could propagate fire to our fuel tanks, capping them, and setting up a big water cannon on one area of our yard where we have a drum fuel cache.”

The crew then moved all vehicles that couldn’t be transported to the center of a paved area in an attempt to protect them from the radiation heat.

Then came the task of packing everything that should and could be saved. “We got all our documents and tech logs; grabbed cargo hooks, water buckets, and anything we need for operations; we took two fuel trailers, our trucks, our van; and emptied out everybody’s locker who wasn’t on shift — taking flight suits, helmets, flight bags, and licenses. And then we just grabbed all the essentials you need to hit the road — [things like] tool kits, spare oil, and spare filters. And here we are.”

An attack from several fronts

Spring said the fire cycle started on Friday, April 29, with a fire in a residential area north of the town. This was followed by two more fires — in the city’s Abasand neighborhood and the TaigaNova Eco-Industrial Park. At the same time, “fire nine” — which would eventually engulf the city — started about five miles to its west.

“Everybody knew that fire was there, but the priority was to stop the fire in town from burning houses,” said Spring. “By the time we got the TaigaNova fire under control on Sunday night, fire nine had taken off and grown substantially.”

By Monday, Phoenix was among a number of operators and firefighters attacking fire nine, which was then within a mile and a half of the city’s limits.

“That was the night, we went out with the Hero [EC135 T2e] aircraft, using NVG [night vision goggles] to take the fire bosses up so they could see where the line was and map it. So they knew it was a problem then.”

The next day, the fight was on. “Bombing operations began, but it was too late. The fire had already gained strength again and started moving, and that’s when it came into town. We’re now on day three of it entering the town really in a serious way.”

Phoenix relocated to a work camp 100 kilometers south of Fort McMurray, but even from that distance, the enormous smoke plume -- about 50,000 feet high -- was clearly visable. Paul Spring Photo
Phoenix relocated to a work camp 100 kilometers south of Fort McMurray, but even from that distance, the enormous smoke plume — about 50,000 feet high — was clearly visable. Paul Spring Photo

Spring said the size of the fire when it encroached on the city made it difficult to tackle in a significant way.

“Where it’s coming into town, it’s not a big fire at that point, it’s just at a very high value area, so it’s hard to put more than 15 to 20 helicopters on it because the airspace is too congested,” he said — especially with the presence of water bombers in the area. “We’re down to just a few helicopters, [and being] very surgical with the points you’re trying to catch. . . . You’re dropping where you can, but it’s just futile. That’s the frustrating part.”

However, given the way the fire has developed, Spring said there would have been no way of preventing it entering Fort McMurray — short of bulldozing all the trees in a mile’s swathe around the town.

“A fire like this, like we saw yesterday — will jump three miles. We call them nuclear — it had pushed smoke up in a mushroom cloud up to 45,000 to 50,000 feet. It had gone off; this fire had gone nuclear. I have seen lots before — in Slave Lake and High Level — where you get a combination of wind and drought codes and heat and there’s nothing you can do except get out of the way.”

Looking ahead

As of Friday morning, eight of Phoenix’s aircraft are working on the fire, with the EC135 T2e continuing to fly medevac missions.

Nine of Phoenix’s 10 helicopters made the journey south; unfortunately, the company’s brand new H130 — which had been on display at HAI Heli-Expo in Louisville — was still in avionics completion, and remained in one of the hangars.

When Vertical spoke with Spring on Thursday, he said the hangars appeared to have remained untouched by the flames. “It looks like it didn’t burn all the trees around us the way it came up the hill, so we may be water bucketing on our own property here shortly,” he said.

An aerial shot of the smoke from the blaze, as Fort McMurray burns below. Paul Spring Photo
An aerial shot of the smoke from the blaze, as Fort McMurray burns below. Paul Spring Photo
However, at least three of the company’s employees believe they have already lost their homes in the blaze.

“You can watch the news, but unless you see your neighborhood, you don’t know if your house is gone or not,” he said. “But even if it is, even if you have your house and go back… everything has changed.”

He said there was no point rushing back to the city once the flames have passed — with electricity, gas, and possibly even water supplies cut. “If we go back to town, where do we sleep? How do we eat? None of that is there. The infrastructure is gone. There’s no food trucks, there’s no fuel — there’s nothing. This is a burnt out town.”

For the immediate future, the camp will serve as Phoneix’s base.

“We’ve got beds, meals, showers, [a] landing area. We’ve got a place that we can basically operate out of here. We’ve got fuel . . . so we’re good. But now it’s time to go find out what’s left, what we need to do, and how can we help.”

Looking ahead, Spring said the town needs to think about recovery, and for Phoenix, that means figuring out how they look after their staff, find temporary housing, and keep the company going.

“We had a staff meeting today, and I gave the guys the bad news,” he said. “We’ve seen this before in other communities, but not ours. And with the magnitude of this problem we have, this devastation, it’s going to be a year before this town recovers in any meaningful way, and maybe four years for a full recovery, depending on the amount of government aid we get. This is a full-on disaster in every sense.”

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