A massive wildfire in western Canada is expected to double in size by late Saturday as shifting winds push it northeast — away from the fire-ravaged Alberta community of Fort McMurray but straight into heavily forested areas offering fresh fuel.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the Fort McMurray blaze “an absolute beast of a fire,” and one of the worst he’s ever seen, the Edmonton Journal reported.
Nearly 90,000 people have been evacuated from the area in the heart of Canada’s oil sands region, with some forced to relocate twice as the flames shifted.
The fire so far has destroyed about 1,600 buildings and homes. The mass evacuations forced as much as a quarter of Canada’s oil output offline. The region contains the third-largest reserves of oil in the world, behind Saudi Arabia andVenezuela.
Extremely dry, hot conditions and high winds will fan the flames Saturday, with a “high potential” the fire could double in size by the end of the day, said Chad Morrison, Alberta’s manager of wildfire prevention.
The fire grew to about 1,000 square kilometers or 386 square miles by Friday, according to the Alberta provincial government, which declared a state of emergency. Doubling in size would put the blaze at 2,000 square kilometers or 772 square miles, about three times larger than the province’s capital of Edmonton.
The fire is expected to expand into a more remote forested area northeast of Fort McMurray, Morrison said.
The blaze is so massive that smoke is blanketing parts of the neighboring province ofSaskatchewan where Environment Canada, the country’s weather service, issued air quality statements for several areas.
No deaths or injuries have been reported. Over the past three days, fresh evacuations forced about 13,500 people to evacuate and another 4,000 are expected to leave the area Saturday.
Morrison said no amount of resources will put the fire out. Rain is the only solution.
“We have not seen rain in this area for the last two months of significance,” Morrison said. “This fire will continue to burn for a very long time until we see some significant rain.”
Environment Canada forecast a 40% chance of showers in the area Sunday. Morrison said cooler conditions were expected Sunday and Monday.
Fort McMurray Mayor Melissa Blake told the Edmonton Journal that the city will rebuild.
“I would say that the folks in my community are stronger, bolder, braver and more prone to succeed, and these setbacks aren’t going to stop anybody who came (to Fort McMurray) with that kind of spirit in the first place,” she said. “I think it will just be a stronger community when we come out of this.”
Many evacuees arrived in Edmonton by plane Friday. Scott Burrell, who was working for a scaffolding company when the fire broke out Tuesday, said he “just saw what looked like a massive cloud in the sky, but I knew it was fire.”
Don Iveson, Edmonton’s mayor, urged evacuees to register online. “What we really need is data so that all orders of government can work together to identify where people are, what their needs are and respond to them as rapidly as possible in a coordinated fashion.”
Morgan Elliott, who fled with his family to Edmonton, said what they saw along the way was “something like Armageddon.” He told CNN: “Everything was burnt, houses gone. Leaving the city, it was like a scene out of a movie. It reminded me of the TV show The Walking Dead, where you’re going on the highway, and there’s just abandoned vehicles everywhere; hundreds of cars, just abandoned vehicles.”