Costs of Fort Mac fire could top $9.5 billion: study

By The Canadian Press  January 18, 2017  

Headlines News

Jan. 18, 2017, Edmonton - A new study says the total costs of the Fort McMurray fire is 9-point-5 billion dollars.

---

MacEwan University economics professor Rafat Alam says that total could go even higher. 

It's the first figure to combine the cost of destroyed buildings and infrastructure with lost income and profits. 

It also adds in the toll on the environment, including lost timber and ecosystem damage. 

Alam says the final bill for the mental and physical health costs are likely to push that total even higher. 

The Insurance Bureau of Canada has said the fire was the costliest disaster for insurers in Canadian history. 

It estimated the total cost will reach 3.7 billion dollars. 

The blaze destroyed 18-hundred single-family homes and numerous other structures and forced the evacuation of nearly 90-thousand people last May.