Alberta is racing to evacuate thousands of
people as an uncontrolled wildfire burns near Fort McMurray, in the
heart of Canada's oil sands region, forcing residents to flee north to
safety on Tuesday.
Alberta appealed for help from other provinces
and Ottawa to help fight the fire and airlift people from the city.
Local authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order for all of Fort
McMurray, which affects the city's 80,000 residents.
The 6,540-acre fire, which was discovered on
May 1, has closed off the main southern exit from the city, prompting
residents to head north towards the oil sands camps.
"This is the biggest evacuation we have seen
in the history of the province in terms of fire," Alberta Premier Rachel
Notley said at a news conference.
"We need to find more camps, we have secured
spaces for about 6,000 people, we know we need to find more and that
work is underway," Notley said.
Suncor Energy said evacuees were welcome at
its Firebag oil sands facility, while Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
said it was working to ensure any affected CNRL workers and their
families could use its camps.
Notley said there were no injuries or casualties in the fire, adding that oil sands operations were also unaffected.
A number of flights from Fort McMurray airport
were cancelled and the airport advised passengers to check with their
airlines for updates.
The blaze, which started southwest of Fort
McMurray, spread rapidly on Tuesday to the outskirts of the city,
forcing the evacuation of the downtown area and almost every community
in the lower town on the banks of the Clearwater and Athabasca rivers.
"There's lots of smoke, its quite bad and
hanging over the city. Where there are trees in the distance you can see
the fire," Fort McMurray resident Nick Sanders told Reuters as he was
packing up to leave downtown.
Earlier, TV footage and photographs on Twitter
showed flames and smoke billowing over the city and traffic heading
north on the highway to safety, while CTV News reported a trailer park
had been destroyed.
"My thoughts are with people affected by the
fire in Fort McMurray tonight. Stay safe and remember to follow
evacuation orders," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.
By late afternoon, the fire had blocked off one major route out of town, closing Highway 63 south of downtown.
Some residents were evacuated to Noralta Lodge, an oil sands camp 21 kilometres (13 miles) north of Fort McMurray.
"Tomorrow is expected to be a more intense
burning day than today is," said Bruce Mayer, assistant deputy minister
of Alberta's Forestry Division.
Mayer said that nine air tankers, more than a dozen helicopters and more than 100 firefighters were battling the fire.
Earlier on Tuesday authorities said the
wildfire jumped the Athabasca river and breached Highway 63, the main
artery south from the isolated city, which is located around 430 km (267
miles) northeast of Alberta's capital, Edmonton.
Authorities are now expecting a cold front to
reach Fort McMurray by Wednesday afternoon, bringing increased winds
that will make tomorrow a more difficult fire-fighting day than today.
After a mild winter with lower-than-average
snowfall and a warm spring, Alberta is much drier than normal for this
time of year, raising the prospect of a long and expensive wildfire
season.
Most oil sands facilities are to the north and
east of the city, with the closest being Suncor Energy's base plant
roughly 30 km (17 miles) away. A Suncor spokesman said there were no
current impacts on operations.
Will Gibson, a spokesman for the Syncrude
project, which has its facility around 40 km (25 miles) north of the
city, said operations were unaffected.
A spokesman for pipeline company Enbridge
Inc., which has crude and condensate pipelines in the region, said the
company was monitoring the situation but there were no impacts so far.
This is the second major fire around the city
in less than a year. Last May, wildfires in the area led to the
evacuation of hundreds of workers from Canada's energy heartland,
leading to a 9 percent cut in Alberta's oil sands output at the
time. The evacuations last year led to shutdowns by Cenovus Energy and
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. at some of their projects.
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