A highway camera photo shows traffic in FortMcMurray jammed in the southbound lane of Highway 63 on the north side of the Athabasca River. The image was captured at 3:11 p.m. MT, about an hour after an evacuation order was issued for four neighbourhoods. (511 Alberta)
Evacuation order issued as wildfire threatening Fort McMurray draws closer https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-wildfire-grande-prairie-fort-mcmurray-1.7203695
Which leads me to believe that this area is actually trained to reverse lanes, but there was no urgency with this slow moving fire.
This and at least with fires there tends to be a lot of incoming resources. Depending on access, condition, and what not. It may be deemed that they need those lanes for emergency personnel.
I lived in Florida for a long time and when there are major hurricanes you have lots of people heading north. I’ve seen them reverse some lanes on the opposite side but keep one for south bound movement. Normally the only people headed in the other direction are emergency workers and its not enough to need more than one lane.
That is true but you have a lot more resources coming to a fire then showing up before a hurricane. I am not saying you have two lanes worth, but with the possibility of smoke obscuring visibility. The emergency vehicles are often given little more room. Also they often have to run with emergency lights at all times. So that is what you are expecting to see. Not someone in a little gray Honda.
I don’t know if that is what is happening here, but it is a reasonable possibility.