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 With a few neighborhoods already in ruins, worsening fire
conditions Wednesday pushed walls of flames toward thousands of more
homes in the northeastern Alberta town, in the heart of Canada's oil
sands region.
The winds also pushed flames toward the local airport, with webcam
images showing black smoke engulfing the airport late on Wednesday
evening. Officials confirmed that a hotel north of main terminal had
caught fire.
As flames fanned south, officials also issued mandatory evacuation
orders for the Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First
Nation communities located about 50 km south of Fort McMurray.
Officials on the scene were forced to evacuate their make-shift
emergency operations center for the second time in the span of less
than a day as the flames spread south. Officials at the center said
in a tweet that they were relocating to the town of Lac La Biche
some 250 km south of Anzac.
Authorities said there had been no known casualties from the blaze
itself, but fatalities were reported in at least one car crash among
the evacuees. Thousands bunked down in arenas, hockey rinks and oil
work camps, often short of fuel and food.
 A huge cloud of black smoke was visible from well over 60 km (37
miles) away from the town. Traffic on the main road headed south had
thinned to a trickle, however, after major jams on Tuesday when the
evacuation order was given.
Stretches of the highway had been converted into make-shift
campgrounds by people in cars, trucks and recreation 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.
"It is a possibility that we may lose a large portion of the town,"
said Scott Long, an official with Alberta's emergency management
agency.
Major oil sands facilities were not in the path of the flames, but
companies' efforts to help employees and evacuees and protect
pipelines led to a decline in production.
Images from the neighborhood of Beacon Hill in the city's southeast
showed rows of charred house foundations, their upper stories burned
to the ground, and blankets of white ash within. Officials said 80
percent of houses in the neighborhood, nearly 600 in total, were
destroyed.
The regional government said two other neighborhoods, Abasand and
Waterways, had sustained "serious loss." Alberta Premier Rachel
Notley said a total of about 1,600 structures have been destroyed in
Fort McMurray."There are certainly areas within the city that have
not been burned, but this fire will look for them and it will find
them and it will want to take them," said Chief Darby Allen of the
Fort McMurray fire department.
The province declared a state of emergency for what was shaping up
to be Canada's costliest natural disaster.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the military can deploy air force
planes to the stricken city as needed. Fort McMurray International
Airport suspended all commercial flights.
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'EXTREME WILDFIRE BEHAVIOR'
It was the second major blaze in the oil sands region in a year.
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.
The wildfire's knock-on effects on oil sands operations escalated on
Wednesday, with five companies including Suncor Energy and Husky
Energy reporting reduced production either because workers had been
affected by the evacuations or because of precautionary pipeline
shutdowns. The impact on crude production volumes was not
immediately clear, but Suncor said late on Wednesday it had shut its
base plant operations - its largest oil sands mining site with a
production capacity of 350,000 barrels of oil a day.
Its other thermal oil sands sites were operating at reduced levels.
Officials said very hot and dry conditions meant "extreme wildfire
behavior" on all fronts around the fire.
The Canadian Red Cross said evacuees were calling the organization
for help getting food and water.
A highway closure on Tuesday forced most evacuees to drive north,
away from major cities. By Wednesday morning, the highway had
reopened, but fuel had run out, stranding evacuees. Alberta's
transport department said it was escorting a fuel tanker north to
help stranded drivers.
Twitter filled with offers of food, housing and animal care as
worried evacuees asked officials and strangers alike about the
status of their homes. Two babies were born at one evacuation center
on Tuesday.
Wildfires were also raging in neighboring British Columbia on
Wednesday, including a 9,000 hectare blaze in the province's
northeast that was threatening to spread across the border to
Alberta, the B.C. Wildfire Service said.
(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary, Julie Gordon in Vancouver,
Leah Schnurr and David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Allison Martell,
Ethan Lou, Andrea Hopkins, Fergal Smith, Amran Abocar and Euan Rocha
in Toronto; Writing by Amran Abocar and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by
Will Dunham, Mary Milliken and Tom Hogue)
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