Canada's Fort McMurray wildfire explodes in size
As a monstrous and destructive wildfire continues to scorch a path through central Canada, an Australian fire expert has issued a stark warning: it could easily happen here.
"Our cities can burn," said David Bowman, a Professor of Environmental Change Biology at the University of Tasmania.
"That might seem tremendously alarmist. But this fire in Fort McMurray [in Canada] is telling us that if you get just the right combination - of the fire being in the right place and the fire weather doing the right things for a disaster - there's absolutely no reason why this scale of economic impact, of burning into some of our cities, is not out of the question." 
The wildfire in north-eastern Alberta was sparked on   May 1 and, fed by hot weather and tinder dry terrain, quickly flared up to a massive wildfire that has been nicknamed "The Beast".
Authorities say it is the country's most destructive wildfire in recent memory, and it could be months before it is under control. Officials warned only significant rainfall could fully halt its spread.
The blaze has scorched a staggering 161,000 hectares, or 1610 square kilometres, officials said. To put that into perspective, it's roughly:
     twice the size of Canberra;   one seventh of the size of the Greater Sydney statistical area, which extends from Wyong and Gosford in the north to the Royal National Park in the south, and to the Blue Mountains in the west;   one sixth the size of the Greater Melbourne statistical area, which extends to the Mornington Peninsula, the Macedon Ranges, the Yarra Valley and south-west to Geelong.         
The Canadian blaze is so hot and so intense that it has formed its own weather system. The thundercloud produced by the blaze is creating its own lightning, and consequently setting more trees alight, according to CNN.
All of the 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray, a city about 650 kilometres north of Calgary, were forced to evacuate last week as the flames bore down. That's the equivalent of evacuating Australian cities the size of Albury-Wodonga on the NSW-Victorian border, Launceston in Tasmania or Rockhampton in Queensland.
Officials have reported that at least 1600 properties in Fort McMurray had been destroyed.
Professor Bowman has just returned from Canada, where he had received a fellowship with the University of British Columbia to study fire ecology there.
He agrees with fire expert Mike Flannigan from Alberta, who said that what was happening in Canada was entirely consistent with climate change. As a result, more of these types of huge fires could be expected in the future.
Professor Bowman said he was in western Canada at the start of the northern spring, which felt more like summer.
Precipitation was low, about half of the average, and what snow there was melted early.   April was exceptionally mild, with temperatures regularly in the 20s, while it even passed 30 degrees at the start of   May. That is 15 degrees above the region's average   May maximum.
"What I'm seeing all around the world now is clear evidence of the consequences of changing climate, which is adding that extra bit to an already messed-up problem," Professor Bowman said.
"That's a key thing: all climate change is doing is making a really serious problem really, really serious.
"Certainly this time of year [around Fort McMurray] there should have been a deep snowpack, and it should have just been a big soggy mess.
"In modern times, the scale of this evacuation and the number of houses being burnt and the fact that the drama is still unfolding, I can't think of anything vaguely comparable in Australia. It's really the perfect nightmare."
Professor Bowman said there were a couple of "really big take-home messages" for Australia from the situation in Canada.
One of those was realising that this could happen in Australian cities, and that residents needed to "take responsibility for living in these dangerous, flammable places". Residents needed to prepare their houses properly, have an evacuation plan, and not rely on the the idea that "someone's going to come and put the fire out" if a bushfire did break out, he said.
"I think the fire experts understand how bad things can get. What I think these fire events are doing is bringing right up into the consciousness of the general public the scale of this problem," he said.
"Most people sort of have an awareness of it, but it's somebody else's problem and they're underestimating the risk. There just isn't a high level of situational awareness that this scale of catastrophe could happen.
"Hopefully we can start cutting through and getting some serious traction and serious engagement.
"Living in flammable environments is not 100 per cent safe and we're seeing a whole complex [group] of factors building up to the nightmare scenario. It sounds extreme, our cities could burn down, or parts of our suburbs could burn down, but it could happen."