The fire remained wrapped around the western and southern edges of the city.
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Meanwhile, local officials also ordered a mandatory evacuation of Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation – which are roughly 30 miles south of Fort McMurray. But the bulk of the more than 80,000 evacuees fled south to Edmonton and elsewhere, and officials said they eventually would like to move everyone south where they have better support for the displaced.
The authorities said there had been no known casualties from the blaze itself, but fatalities were reported in at least one auto crash among the evacuees.
On Wednesday evening, thousands stayed in arenas, hockey rinks and school gymnasiums, some with little food and other resources.
“Thick black smoke was closing in and surrounded the auto”. Stretches of the highway had been converted into makeshift campgrounds by people in vehicles who were fleeing the inferno.
Firefighting crews have been unable to stop the wildfire, which has charred 18,500 acres (7,500 hectares) since it erupted on Sunday and exploded in ferocity.
According to the Darby Allen, regional fire chief and director of emergency management for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, as of May 4, Beacon Hill and Abasand have sustained the most structural damage from the fires, with 70% and 50%, respectively, of homes lost. The largest oil sands operation in Canada, Suncor Energy Inc., is not in the path of the flames, but also curtailed production due to evacuations.
Images from NASA Earth show how much ground the fire covered within 24 hours.
“You could add five times the number of firefighters, but you can’t get all the embers”, he said.
“There are certainly areas within the city that have not been burnt, but this fire will look for them, and it will find them, and it will want to take them”, he said Wednesday. Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called it one of the largest fire evacuations in Canadian history, if not the largest.
A helicopter flies past a massive plume of smoke above Fort McMurray, Alta. Last May, wildfires led to the evacuation of hundreds of workers from the region, and a 9 percent cut in Alberta’s oil sands output.
Shell said it has shut down production at its Shell Albian Sands mining operations- about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Fort McMurray – so it can focus on getting families out of the region.
Rogers is giving free long distance/texting to Fort McMurray until May 17 and we are partnering with the Red Cross.
There is no indication yet on how many buildings have been destroyed or damaged in the city.
He said the highway later opened and it was bumper to bumper and said there were many cars on the side of the road because service stations were out of fuel.
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“The extreme fire behavior began to create its own weather, even creating its own high winds yesterday”, said Chad Morrison of AB Wildfire.
