Ninety percent of buildings in the city survived the fire, she said.
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“And then you notice the blackened forest that surrounds Fort McMurray. entire swaths of burned out trees and hillsides”, Trudeau said during an evening news conference.
Melissa Blake, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, said it was critical for Trudeau to tour the burned neighbourhoods. Authorities said the wildfire was approximately 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the Saskatchewan boundary.
The province hopes to have a re-entry plan in place in about two weeks.
Alberta officials said 2,432 structures were destroyed, 530 damaged and 25,000 saved.
The military is pulling out, but Brig. -Gen. Wayne Eyre, commander of Joint Task Force West, said personnel will remain on high alert throughout the summer.
Canadian Red Cross chief executive Conrad Sauve has said that each adult will receive 600 Canadian dollars (£323) and each child will get 300 Canadian dolllars (£162) in what he called the most important and fastest direct cash transfer in the organisation’s history.
On Wednesday, the provincial government announced it will provide $100 million in emergency funding for evacuees while the Red Cross announced it will contribute $50 million from the $67 million donated by Canadians so far for fire relief efforts.
Evacuees have been picking up $1,250 pre-loaded debit cards per adult and $500 per dependent at distribution centres around Alberta this week.
“That being said, we are long from over in this fight”.
The fire shut down oil sands firms in the province which are just starting to re-open.
Back in Ottawa, Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains will share his – and his government’s – thoughts on Thursday’s decision by the Competition Bureau to greenlight the proposed takeover of Quebec-based home improvement chain RONA by US-based Lowes at a morning media availability in the Commons Foyer.
The fire itself, which is now 2,400 square kilometres in size, has moved away from the city and is expected to burn in forested areas for many more weeks. That includes areas already burned and now burning.
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The prime minister also gave reassurances that the government will be there as the oilsands city recovers and rebuilds. “They’re being sheltered by friends or family or kind strangers”. Two fire investigators and one fire weather forecaster from the BC Weather Service, and 150 RCMP tactical troop and traffic service officers have also been sent to Alberta to help out.
