Fort McMurray fire chief becomes face of besieged city

By Rod Nickel
LAC LA BICHE, Alberta, May 5 (Reuters) - Darby Allen was the
relatively unknown fire chief of a remote Canadian city before a
raging wildfire made him responsible for getting 88,000 people
to safety.
Allen, a British immigrant who has lived in Canada for
decades, is being hailed as a hero on social media for his
successful evacuation this week of the entire population of Fort
McMurray, Alberta, and the ongoing battle against an
out-of-control fire.
He fought back tears as he outlined the evacuation on
Tuesday, describing it as the worst day of his career.
"The people here are devastated ... This is going to take us
a while to come back from," he said at a news conference earlier
this week.
But, reflecting the spirit of a blue-collar city at the
heart of Canada's oilsands industry, he expressed determination
that Fort McMurray would recover.
"We are here, and we are strong, and we will keep doing our
job."
The wildfire near Fort McMurray spread south and forced more
evacuations on Thursday after spreading ten-fold overnight and
destroying hundreds of homes.
"This is a nasty, dirty fire. There are certainly areas
within the city that have not been burned, but this fire will
look for them, and it will find them, and it will try and take
them," Allen said during news conference on Wednesday.
Fort McMurray's fire chief for just over three years, Allen
began his career as a firefighter in Hampshire, England, in
1984, before joining the Calgary Fire Department in 1992,
according to his LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) profile.
While he could not be reached for an interview, Allen showed
a sense of humor on his profile, describing his responsibilities
in Calgary as "leaping small buildings" and in Fort McMurray as
"seemed like everything..."
His impassioned speech to reporters as he described the
efforts his department had made to fight the fire earned Allen
praise on social media.
"Poor Darby Allen, be strong buddy ... Thank you for
everything. (We) can make it through this!!!" Stephen Whitehead
tweeted.
Twitter user Ron Hole wrote: "No idea what Wood Buffalo fire
chief Darby Allen makes a year but he has earned every cent of
it the past few days."