As many as 8,000 people have been airlifted to safety as a fire continues to cause devastation in the state of Alberta, Canada.
Advertisement
The wildfire forced all 88,000 people to flee the western Canadian oil city of Fort McMurray and burned down at least 1,600 structures, including homes and motels.
The fire threatens up to 1 million barrels of daily oil production capability, according to Bentek Energy, which noted that some of that output was already offline for seasonal reasons. From there, many people will make their way to Edmonton or Calgary, to be housed in evacuation centers or with family or friends.
Fire official Chad Morrison says the circumstances were such that no amount of a buffer between the city and the forest could have prevented the flames from moving into Fort McMurray.
Morrison says something more is needed, however.
But managers overseeing the effort have warned the fire could burn “for a very long time” unless the area receives significant rainfall.
Environment Canada forecast a 40 percent chance of showers in the area on Saturday. Dry conditions have fed the fire.
Police will release each convoy about 20 kilometres south of Fort McMurray with evacuees instructed to continue on to the Edmonton area, more than 400 kilometres south.
In the interim, Trudeau said, the main priority for his government was ensuring effective communications between those on the ground, the province and Ottawa, and ensuring emergency authorities get everything they need to deal with the catastrophic situation.
“We do know”, she said, “that it will not be a matter of days”.
Evacuees in some 1,500 vehicles began making the 30-mile (50-km) trip at 4 a.m. (1000 UTC) in groups of 50 cars.
Fort McMurray is a remote oil town in central Canada with effectively only one road leading out.
“I’ve got two young kids”.
“I was anxious that we were going to lose him”, she said in a telephone interview.
RCMP in Alberta have brought in special tactical teams to root out people who refuse to leave fire-ravaged Fort McMurray.
A flock of birds flies as smoke billows from the Fort McMurray wildfires in Kinosis, Alberta, Canada, May 5, 2016.
An estimated 12,000 evacuees are being provided with food, clothes and somewhere to sleep in La Biche, a small town about 175 miles away from Fort McMurray.
Starkey said that while domestic stockpiles of oil are not quite as high as previous year, they are still “extreme” on a historical basis.
Forty fires, five of which were considered out of control, were burning across the province of Alberta Friday, the government said. The region is known for its massive oil reserves – the third-largest in the world.
Advertisement
Premier Rachel Notley said the provincial government had approved emergency funding for displaced residents, each displaced adult will get $1,250, and each dependent will receive $500 – Notley said that will cost the province about $100 million in total.
