The officials are hoping that the motorway to the south will be become safe by Friday so they can help move the remaining 17,000 people, according to BBC.
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In preparation, gasoline trucks were being sent in Thursday to fuel up vehicles for the long trip through the city and more than 400 kilometres south to Edmonton. That allowed them to escape south to Lac La Biche.
Donations continued to stream in from around the country.
The Red Cross reported about $30 million had been donated for victim relief and the Saskatchewan government pledged $250,000.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian Air Force is now in the process of airlifting people out of the region.
These fires range from 50 hectares to over 10,000 hectares (less than a half of a square mile to 38 square miles) and are in varying levels of containment.
If even a quarter of Fort McMurray’s structures are destroyed, by MacKinnon’s analysis the fire would be the costliest insurance event in Canadian history, beating the CAN$1.9bn bill resulting from ice storms in Quebec in 1998, and the $1.8bn worth of insured damage arising from floods in southern Alberta in 2013.
Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fires at the University of Alberta, says the fire’s proximity to the city, as well as data that shows there were no lightning strikes in the area, lead him to believe the cause of the fire was likely human.
He said it is also too risky to let those people drive south through Fort McMurray. “They’re low to the ground which can keep them away from the heat a bit more but the animals just as susceptible to that (toxic smoke) as we are”, admits Vancouver Fire and Rescue Captain Jonathan Gormick.
The cause of the blaze has yet to be determined.
On May 4, 2016, the the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) on the Landsat 7 satellite acquired this false-color image of the wildfire that burned through Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada.
A provincewide fire ban was still in effect Friday. Larivee also ordered a ban on recreational use of off-highway vehicles, while Notley urged Albertans to avoid forests altogether. She said she and her family have had trouble sleeping and have had nightmares involving fires. “It’s going to continue to burn with high intensity for the next several days until we get some rain or cooler conditions”. Extreme fire conditions are expected to continue through this weekend.
“We may have a long road ahead of us, but they can count on not only the government, but the people of Alberta, to support them in the ways that we need”, she said. “We’re going to be here for weeks and weeks”.
Melissa Blake, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, said she is heartened by everyone who has helped and by the resilience of residents.
“I’ve seen people who have lost everything break down … and then the next morning you see them and there’s smiles”.
“Right now we are working with industry to do as much air evacuation as possible”, said Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.
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Unifor’s president Jerry Dias issued the following statement in response to the disaster: “To our members in and around Fort McMurray, stay safe and know that your union is thinking of you and will work with you and your neighbours to rebuild your community”.
