The head of the Mennonite Disaster Service in Canada is paying close attention to the devastating fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Ross Penner of Winnipeg is the District Five Director for MDS and we reached him in Detroit where he is attending meetings of the organization. Penner says the damage caused by the Fort McMurray fire is hard to comprehend.

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Ross Penner"This is just something on a completely different scale than what we've seen before, although it does bring back some memories of Slave Lake many years ago as well where the city was also devastated. But the evacuation and the size of that really speaks to how huge this one is."

Penner says MDS will be responding in Fort McMurray when the time is right.

"Oh yes absolutely. We're standing ready. Of course the disaster is still ongoing at this point and so a key concern is the safety of people and the addressing of the fire. But once this is under control, that's when MDS and its network of volunteers will look to be involved in clean-up and responding to what's just got to be massively devastating for people, personally."

Penner says the Fort McMurray disaster has the potential to be on a similar scale to Hurricane Katrina which was the largest catastrophe MDS has ever dealt with.

"For disaster response, this was a game changer, both in terms of the size of it and in terms of the level of volunteer response. This was an event that really raised people's awareness and, I would say, brought the best out of people in terms of wanting to help. Katrina, for example, ended up being a multi-year response by MDS and I would say that Fort McMurray has that potential but we'll need to wait and see."

Penner adds it's too soon to identify specific volunteer needs for Fort McMurray but adds MDS will be looking for crews to help with the response once the fire is out. For now, he encourages people to donate money to the Red Cross and other organizations that are helping residents of that city with urgent needs. He adds people can also register with MDS if they would like to help with the clean-up when the time comes.