When we profiled the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northeastern Alberta, Canada, in the June 2015 issue of MSW, we had no way of knowing it would essentially burn to the ground less than a year later.

Fort McMurray, Alberta, is the urban center of RMWB, and as I write this column in mid-May, it’s in flames. The hub of the Canadian oilsands has been wiped out. The whole city has been evacuated. The population has been reduced almost exclusively to firefighters...