The ferocious wildfire wreaking havoc in Canada doubled in size and officials warned that the situation in the parched Alberta oil sands region was “unpredictable and dangerous.” “This remains a big, out of control, dangerous fire,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said of the raging inferno bigger than London that forced the evacuation of the city of Fort McMurray. Winds were pushing the flames east of the epicenter around the oil city late Saturday, as nearly all 25,000 people who were still trapped to the north finally left town, either via airlift or convoys on the roads. The wildfire had doubled in size in one day, covering more than 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) by midnight and continuing to grow, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency said in an update late May 6./ AFP PHOTO
FORT MCMURRAY , Canada (AFP) — The wildfires around the Canadian city of Fort McMurray were moving “much, much more slowly” on Sunday, Alberta premier Rachel Notley said, as she also lowered the estimate of the area destroyed so far.
Officials earlier Sunday had warned that the fires could reach neighboring Saskatchewan province but as the day wore on the advancing edge of the blaze had slowed and the fire is still 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the provincial border.
The earlier estimate that 2,000 square kilometers of forest had been destroyed was high, Notley said in a press conference, adding that the true figure was closer to 1,600.
Chad Morrison, senior wildfire manager for Alberta, said that “with a little help from mother nature and a bit of a break in the weather,” along with the hard work of some 500 firefighters, most fire lines in Fort McMurray had been contained.
The threat to oil-sand mines north of the city had also diminished, at least for now, he said.
Morrison said fire lines had moved away from the work sites of Nexen and the Chinese group CNOOC after inflicting only minor damage.
Work sites of the Suncor petroleum group had also been spared.
Morrison said firefighters hoped that rains and cooler temperatures predicted for Monday and winds from the west, gusting up to 60 kilometers per hour (35 mph) should help keep the flames away from the petroleum work camps in coming days.
Notley thanked rescue personnel for their “miraculous” work in helping evacuate roughly 100,000 area inhabitants.
But she regretted the deaths of two people who died when their vehicle struck a truck while fleeing the blaze.
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