Fighters hope to get ‘death grip’ on wildfire

Canadian firefighters looked to cooler weather to help with their battle against the country’s most destructive wildfire in recent memory, as officials sought to gauge the damage to oil sands boomtown Fort McMurray. 

The fire, which started on May 1, spread so quickly that the community’s inhabitants barely had time to leave and whole neighbourhoods were destroyed.

“This is great firefighting weather, we can really get in here and get a handle on this fire, and really get a death grip on it,” Alberta fire official Chad Morrison said.