A wildfire reached the Canadian town of Jasper, Alberta on Wednesday, one of hundreds ravaging the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, as firefighters battled to save key facilities such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline, authorities said.
Wildfires burning uncontrolled across the region include 433 in British Columbia and 176 in Alberta, more than a dozen of them in the area of Fort McMurray, an oil sands hub.
The pipeline, which can carry 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Edmonton to Vancouver, runs through a national park in the Canadian Rockies near the picturesque tourist town, from which about 25,000 people were forced to evacuate on Tuesday.
“Firefighters … are working to save as many structures as possible and protect critical infrastructure, including the wastewater treatment plant, communications facilities, the Trans Mountain Pipeline,” Parks Canada said in a post on Facebook.
I have no idea if that framing is outrage bait — like, who gives a shit about hideous industrial blight when people’s homes and a national park are being destroyed — but also, what horrors are unleashed when an oil pipeline meets a wildfire? It sounds like it’d be pretty fucking bad.
Also, I get protecting the waste treatment plant. Firemen have it hard enough without having to trudge through actual hot shit. (And it might be flammable too. I do my best to avoid learning what happens after a toilet gets flushed.)
TL/DR: I’m totally ignorant of what happens when oil and shit meet fire but I’m guessing it’s bad.