The city’s population of around 80,000 was ordered to leave immediately on Tuesday evening as the fire breached city limits and ripped through some neighborhoods.
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The good news: As of Wednesday morning, no injuries have been reported.
“I would say it’s been the worst day of my career”, Darby Allen, the regional fire chief for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, told CBC News. Officials said there were serious losses in Waterways.
The province may ask for ground support from the military at some point in order to gain access to destroyed parts of Fort McMurray, Notley said. Residents were panicked. Highway 63 is the only road out of the city and flames jumped the road.
Warm temperatures, low humidity and strong winds in northern Alberta are giving the blaze exactly what it needs to keep growing.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a statement Wednesday he is watching the situation with “great concern” and said “situation is fluid and evolving rapidly”.
Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, in a conference call from Germany early yesterday, confirmed a formal request for assistance had been received from the Alberta government.
He said: “We all have to work together to come to the aid and support of people who are experiencing bad tragedies, losing their homes, their jobs and everything they own”.
Premier Rachel Notley says many buildings have significant damage, with 1,600 structures and houses damaged or destroyed.
By mid-day Wednesday, the looming flames forced officials to abandon the evacuation command centre near the airport. He encouraged Canadians to donate to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts.
Several homes and businesses have already been destroyed and officials say 80 percent of the residences in the Beacon Hill area are gone.
April Bolger said she spent more than an hour frantically calling 911 from her home to seek help for Lilly, her 20-month-old daughter, who suffers a heart condition. “It took me, to get from our front door while we were evacuating, to Confederation Dr. [the main road out of town], an hour and a half, which is a three minute walk”.
The 32-year-old Upshall grew up in the Alberta city and played junior hockey with the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey Leauge before moving on to the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers.
Canada’s oilsands are considered the third-largest reserves of crude oil in the world, with 166 billion barrels of recoverable oil covering 142,000 square kilometres.
Temperatures are expected to hit 32 C (89.6 F) in Fort McMurray today, and with winds hovering even as lightly as they are now, the blaze could continue to cause problems for firefighters involved in containing the blaze. “Now we’re just salvaging”, she said. “Everyone’s just kind of accepted that their houses might burn tonight”. What if they have no relatives in the vicinity and nowhere to stay?
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Bishop Terrio said that as the full extent of loss and damage becomes to be known, the whole community would be called upon to help rebuild and resettle the city. However, by the end of the morning, the inversion reversed, Mr. Schmitte said, which would have fanned the flames and smoke further.
