This piece of news was written by Associated Press and Clemence Michallon for the Daily Mail online newspaper on the 7th May of 2016.
The news is about the terrible fire that still goes rages on in the area of Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. The fire started on Friday and its still spreading. More than 80,000 evacuees had to flee their homes because of it and more than 249,571 acres of land have been burnt. It is predicted that the fire will double its size and even grow bigger for the next few weeks. Officers inform of a blaze that has already torched 1,600 homes and buildings and that can only be stopped by rain at this time.
More than 5,500 people were got to safety by the authorities on Friday, while more than 8,000 left Fort McMurray, with a registration of more than 1,200 vehicles past Wandering River. Some of the evacuees left by plane. The smoke is making some of the evacuation services a bit difficult.
Apparently, the size of the fire is because of Fort McMurray is an area of the oil industry, which has been terribly damaged by the fire, with a quarter of Canada's oil out. It is said that this has already started to be prejudicial for the country's economy.
Many evacuees arrived by plane in Edmonton International Airport (more than 45 flights), feeling lucky after what they had seen. Scott Burrel, an evacuee from a scalfolding plant called Fort Hills, told the journalists how some of the evacuated workers offered food and shelter to the families that arrived from the evacuation.
Chad Morrison, Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention, said that, despite of the firefighters' job, only rain will be able to stop this blaze. The forecast, however, predict a hot weather with wind on Saturday, which is bad, and a 40 percent of probability for rain on Sunday. so it's not very favourable.
Reports inform that more than 25,000 people fled north, while 80,000 fled south, were authorities have said that they can get better support services. The government has ensured a payement for each evacuee to cover basic needs with a cost of $77 million.
The cause of the fire that started on Tuesday hasn't been discovered yet, but it could be by lightning. Canada has lost a lot of oil sands land and the fire has already burnt a big part of Alberta's territory.
Personally, I think that this is really sad. The destruction of wildlife and of people's homes is always terrible, and fire is one of the things that can damage the most. It's a pity that the fire is so big that they can't stop it if it doesn't rain. It makes me wonder if more help from firefighter services, even if they were from another province, department or from volunteering could help more to extinguish it sooner before it burns a lot more land.
Link to the video: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3576805/Canadian-convoy-waits-dawn-hoping-flee-wildfire-zone.html#v-1420596104547382803
VOCABULARY
wildfire: a large fire that spreads rapidly and is hard to put out.
blaze: a bright flame or fire.
ensuing: to follow in order.
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