A map of the fire

     Finally someone posted a map of the big fire with place names on it. Keep in mind this is just the portion of Northern Alberta that is known as the Bitumen Complex. http://www.industrymailout.com/Industry/Home/5321/22967/images/Bitumont%20South_June%207-11.pdf This link will open a page that shows the big Richardson Fire MWF007. Look for Albian Village near the middle of the map. According to the scale, the actual fire looks to be about 7 km or so north of the Village, and about the same to the west. Looks like the river is holding the fire so far. As you can also see, there are other camps that are being directly threatened by the fire itself, and a lot of the fire-fighting is surrounding those areas to build firebreaks and keep the edge wet down. The smoke is really bad again in the area, but according to a smoke forecast map I found, it should clear out as the winds will be changing again after tomorrow, and blowing it northeast. As for the size of it, I wasn't sure exactly how large a hectare was, so I googled a conversion tool and 1 acre = 0.4 hectares. So when they speak of this fire being over 415,000 hectares large, I guess you can double that, plus some, to get an idea of how many acres are burning right now. That puts it over a million acres just in that one fire. Again, around Albian Village there are a couple of big mines, and by mines I mean they strip mine, so trees, brush, vegetation is gone. Notice some of the camps like CNRL and Joslyn Creek have fire right at their doorsteps. I just wish it would rain!!! I'm afraid, judging by the size of that fire, it would need to rain for days on end to make a dent in it.
     Anyway, as far as I know now, I will be heading back on Saturday.