The Fort McMurray wildfire in northern Alberta that forced the evacuation of 90,000 residents and shut in more than a million barrels per day of oil output was most likely caused by human activity, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Wildfires raging through Alberta have spread to the main oil-sands facilities north of Fort McMurray, knocking out an estimated 1 million barrels of production from Canada’s energy hub. Fire officials say the out-of-control inferno may keep burning for months without significant rainfall.
Canadian officials say they expect to fight the massive wildfire that has destroyed large parts of Alberta’s oil sands city of Fort McMurray for months.
Long before the oil era, Fort McMurray first flourished as a fur trading hub tucked in a valley of northern Canada’s boreal forest. Even then, the area’s shiny black soil stood out.
Canadian officials have started evacuating 8,000 people by air from work camps north of a city devastated by a massive wildfire that has grown to cover 85,000 hectares.
A massive, raging wild fire has forced the evacuation of three more communities south of Canada’s main oil sands city.
A fire fueled by shifting winds that forced more than 80,000 people to flee their homes and disrupted oil-sands operations in Western Canada is poised to expand.
Up to 80,000 residents are being told to evacuated the entire city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, under a mandatory evacuation order because of an uncontrolled wildfire that is rapidly spreading.