Canadian wildfire reaches oilsands camps, forcing more evacuation

The huge wildfire burning out of control around the Canadian oilsands town of Fort McMurray has approached some major oilsands facilities in the city's north, forcing more workers to flee for safety two weeks after a massive evacuation, officials said Tuesday.

The wildfire continued to rage north of Alberta province and forced the mandatory evacuation of all work camps in a 60 km area between Fort McMurray and Fort MacKay, displacing about 8,000 non-essential workers, said Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.

Most of the workers involved are employed at 12 plants for Canadian oil producers Suncor and Syncrude. About 6,000 of those people were moved to the north and could be flown to safety from landing strips owned by oilsands companies, should that be necessary.

"The remaining staff will ensure site safety and stability, while it is safe to do so," Notley said. "Plans are in place to evacuate them, if and when needed. We expect fire growth in the area of many of these camps today."

Hours after the workers were told to leave the area, the 665-room Blacksand Lodge work camp, about 35 kilometers from Fort McMurray, was destroyed by fire Monday night. The camp was used to provide temporary housing for workers in oil facilities nearby.

The fire known as "beast" has grown to 3,540 square km by Tuesday morning and will be pushed east, spurred by high winds, to encroach on major oilsands facilities owned by Suncor and Syncrude, according to Chad Morrison, senior wildfire manager.

However, those massive plants used to process bitumen are surrounded by wide barriers of cleared firebreak and gravel, and employ their own firefighting crews, so the facilities themselves are unlikely to be threatened by the flames, said Morrison.

"We feel fairly confident those sites themselves will be OK," he said. Fires burned through the oilsands region north of Fort McMurray in 2011 and the sites themselves were never in danger.

Meanwhile, firefighters in Fort McMurray responded to a pair of explosions overnight. One happened in the Thickwood area, on Silin Forest Road near Father Patrick Mercredi Community School. One fourplex was destroyed and three other units were damaged.

The other explosion happened at a home on McConachie Crescent. Seven nearby homes were also damaged. Both fires were quickly extinguished and the two explosions are still under investigation.

More than 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray, the entire population, are now entering their third week away from home with no word on when they may be able to return.

Recovery efforts in the city have been hampered by heavy hazardous smoke and plans to bring in more workers to help with re-entry have also been suspended.

On Monday, the air quality index (measured on a scale of one to 10) reached 38. On Tuesday, the index dipped to 13, still an extremely high risk, but was expected to rise later in the day.

"This poses a serious risk to first responders and recovery workers in the area, and so it has the potential to stall recovery efforts," Premier Notley said at a news conference.

Notley said firefighting efforts will focus Tuesday on the area around the work camps and on protecting the Northlands Products sawmill, about 16 km north of the city, which is currently threatened by the fire.

Almost 90 percent of the structures in Fort McMurray have been saved from the unprecedented wildfire, which destroyed about 2,400 homes and buildings. Much of the downtown area and infrastructure remained untouched. Endit