http://themilitant.com/2016/8020/802006.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 20 May 23, 2016
(front page)
Social disaster from Alberta wildfire product
of capitalism
BY JOE YOUNG
EDMONTON, Alberta — A massive wild fire destroyed a major part of Fort
McMurray, 270 miles north of here, and forced the emergency evacuation
of the entire population of 88,000. Fire is a natural and regular
occurrence in this region. But its devastating impact on tens of
thousands of working people is a man-made disaster, the result of
decisions by the bosses and government that put profits ahead of human
life.
Estimated losses are 9 billion Canadian dollars (about US$6.9 billion),
with 2,400 homes and other structures destroyed. As of May 9 the fire
was still burning outside the city.
Fort McMurray is the main town in Alberta’s oil sands region. Its
population has grown rapidly since the late 1990s alongside the boom in
oil production. Despite being surrounded by forest, neither the state
nor local governments had made adequate preparations for protecting the
city from fire.
The fire began to threaten the city on May 1. Authorities abruptly
declared a mandatory evacuation the afternoon of May 3. Highway 63, the
one route through town, rapidly became gridlocked. After flames jumped
the road, some people were directed north and the bulk toward the south.
“It took almost 18 hours to get out,” Carra-Danielle Gaba told the
Militant at the Northlands Expo Centre where hundreds of evacuees are
being housed in Edmonton. Gaba works in administration in an oil camp
and has a small child. “We ran out of gas twice. In all the small
communities, people had jerry cans, handing us food, diapers and toys.
There was no proper communication on how serious the situation was.”
“The cars were cooking in the middle of hell,” said Brad Pollard, who
works in transit. “There is only one way in and out.” For years there
has been discussion about the need to build a second highway, but no
action.
Workers in the Fort McMurray area had already been heavily hit by the
downturn in the oil industry. Unemployment in Alberta has risen to 7.2
percent from 5.6 percent a year ago, largely because layoffs in the oil
patch. In Fort McMurray the official rate was 9.8 percent before the
fire. Oil companies expect to further cut production by 1 million
barrels a day in the wake of the fire.
Alberta Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier said May 4 that he didn’t think
recent cuts by the provincial government, roughly CA$15 million from
fire prevention and fire fighting, had any impact on the disaster.
Some evacuees and others have raised the need for firebreaks to make it
more difficult for forest fires to enter the town. “The place was a fire
trap. I could hop off my balcony into the brush,” said Louis Barham, an
education assistant who has lived six years in Fort McMurray.
“They should surround the town with cut trees – 50 meters,” said Oye
Beavogui, who builds scaffolding for an oil company.
Some workers are discussing rebuilding the town. Gaba told the Militant,
“People want to rebuild. Groups are trying to get crews together.”
“There are many workers who could work on cleanup and rebuilding. Unions
should fight for the government to organize a massive project at union
rates of pay,” said Katy LeRougetel, Communist League member, talking
with a group of evacuees at the Northlands Centre.
Monica Coombs, who is originally from Newfoundland, proudly replied that
she is a member of both Labourers’ Union Local 92 and International
Union of Operating Engineers Local 955. Her husband, Winston Welsh, a
trucker, said, “It’s not, ‘We want to come back.’ We are coming back to
help rebuild Fort Mac — our home.”
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