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But was there mass hysteria, anarchy or a breakdown in social conventions, as there could easily have been? If there was, that was not the picture presented to the world. On the contrary, along with traumatic reports of some close calls, we mostly heard of amazing acts of kindness, selflessness, help for others, powerful community spirit and generally exemplary behaviour.

My contacts from abroad were ruefully imagining how this scenario might have played out in other parts of the globe. We agreed that it could so easily have turned into a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions with massive loss of life. Yet it didn’t, I’d suggest, in huge part due to one of the strongest industry cultures of safety anywhere.

I’ve been working in and out of the city as a communications consultant for two decades, and have been involved with the crisis communication plans of most of the major oil companies in the region. I’ve also worked in Europe, Asia and Africa, and can say that you’d be hard pressed to find a more safety-conscious population anywhere due to the rigorous focus of the oil and gas industry.

One of the unique factors of Fort McMurray is that just about everyone in that city is touched in some way by the industry. It could be directly through an operations job in one of the plants, or as family or friends who hear the language of safety and the talk of fire drills and intense emergency response training like ICS, an incident command system. That’s a military-style framework, common to all responders, that co-ordinates emergencies in a highly efficient way. This prevents freelancing, where people do their own thing without regard to the bigger picture — a sure recipe for chaos.