May 7, 2016
Planning is under way (click here) to allow evacuated Fort McMurray residents back home, but it’s unclear how long it will be before advances in fighting a massive wildfire opens the door to their return, a senior Alberta fire official said Saturday.
However, officials said they will be fighting the overall fire, expected to reach 300,000 hectares in size by day’s end Saturday, for months to come even if they make gains that allow the return of more than 80,000 residents to the northern Alberta city.
“It’s going to take quite a while for the wildfire fighters to actually get that under control, contain it, put it out,” Scott Long, executive provincial operations director for the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, told a Saturday afternoon briefing in Edmonton....
