One school of thought on the cause says, by the gov't not allowing naturally caused fires (lightning strikes, etc.) to burn out excess tinder developes. Extinguishing those over many years, has caused the tinder, to accumulate well beyond acceptable levels. Result, this enormous fire. One can only hope the knuckleheads learn from this disaster.
The fire is now over 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres). They have said it is "beyond resources" meaning no matter what they throw at it, it will continue to burn until significant rain changes the conditions.
Fire grew substantially last night. Now estimated to be 423,000 hectares, or over one million acres. They also expect it to breach the border of neighbouring Saskatchewan by the end of the day.
To put the size of this fire into perspective, it is currently almost 9/10 the size of the Grand Canyon National Park, and growing.
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