Fort McMurray: Fire could double in size, Canadian official says
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The Fort McMurray wildfire in Canada is massive. And it could get a lot worse.
Dry and extremely windy conditions are fueling the blaze, which has scorched more than 1,560 square kilometers (602 square miles) and ravaged the city of Fort McMurray, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Saturday.
“It’s extremely dry out there. Wind continues to push from the southwest, to push the fire to the northeast into the forested areas,” Alberta Wildfire official Chad Morrison said Friday afternoon. “There is a high potential that this fire could double in size by the end of the day tomorrow.”
Remains of a building stand in the neighborhood of Abasand in Fort McMurray on May 13.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
Burned trees dot the landscape in Fort McMurray on May 13.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, and Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen look over the devastation during a visit to Fort McMurray on May 13.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson /The Canadian Press via AP
Charred remains of homes are seen in Fort McMurray on May 13.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP
A police officer looks over a destroyed building in the Abasands neighborhood of Fort McMurray on Monday, May 9.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP
Burned ground surrounds a sign welcoming visitors to Fort McMurray on May 9. The wildfire began Sunday, May 1, and had torched nearly 617,800 acres as of May 10, according to Alberta's Wildfire Management agency. The cause of the blaze was unclear.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP
Remains of a burned-out house sit near intact homes in Fort McMurray on May 9.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Smoke fills the air as a police officer checks vehicles at a roadblock along Highway 63 leading into Fort McMurray on Sunday, May 8.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Rodney Howse gets water at a donation center on May 8. The center was established to help evacuees who were forced from their homes by the wildfire.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A ball of flame rises behind abandoned vehicles on Highway 63 near Fort McMurray on Saturday, May 7.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Foundations of homes are all that remain in parts of a residential neighborhood in Fort McMurray on May 7.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Skeletons of patio furniture are seen on May 7.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A helicopter helping with the Fort McMurray wildfire takes off from a staging base near Conklin, Alberta, on May 7.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Remains of a home in Fort McMurray are seen on May 7.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Charred vehicles sit in a heavily damaged residential neighborhood on May 7.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Smoke and flames create a dramatic sunset near Fort McMurray on Friday, May 6.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A huge plume of smoke from the wildfires rises over Fort McMurray in this aerial photograph taken on May 6.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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The remains of a swing sits in a residential neighborhood destroyed by the fire on May 6 in Fort McMurray.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A plane drops fire retardant in Fort McMurray on May 6.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A police helicopter lifts off through dust and smoke on May 6.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Drivers wait for clearance to take firefighting supplies into town on Thursday, May 5, outside Fort McMurray.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police surveys wildfire damage in Fort McMurray. The RCMP tweeted the photo on May 5.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Tyra Abo sits on a cot at a makeshift evacuation center in Lac la Biche, Alberta, on May 5.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A woman picks through donated clothing and goods at a makeshift evacuation center in Lac la Biche on May 5.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
The wildfire moves toward the town of Anzac on Wednesday, May 4.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
People camp out at a beach south of Fort McMurray on May 4.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
Evacuees watch the wildfire near Fort McMurray on May 4.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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Traffic is at a standstill on Highway 63 south as residents flee the wildfire on May 4.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
Robert Parker, left, and Matt Jones siphon gas from two snowmobiles for their truck on May 4.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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A helicopter flies past the wildfire in Fort McMurray on May 4.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
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The wildfire rages through Fort McMurray on Tuesday, May 3.
Photos: Wildfire forces Canadian city to evacuate
NASA/EARTH OBSERVATORY/JOSHUA STEVENS/EPA
The wildfire burns through northern Alberta in this image released by NASA on May 3.
Fort McMurray has been devastated. Besides the fire damage to structures, the power grid has been damaged, and the water is currently undrinkable, Notley said.
Vehicles headed south down Highway 63, the lone road open for people relocating to emergency shelters or the homes of friends or family, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo reported.
One of the fleeing residents told CNN near Fort McMurray that the past few days have been like “hell on Earth. Just like hell.”
Other residents had already made it to safety at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
Morgan Elliott and fiancée Cara Kennedy fled first to the Syncrude oil sands camp north of Fort McMurray with their baby, Abigail, but not much else. Then Friday it was time to try for Edmonton.
“It was something like Armageddon,” Elliott says. “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.”
Edmonton resident Bill Glynn, who was working in Fort McMurray when the fire broke out, was in a convoy and told the Edmonton Journal newspaper that the scene was “like a war zone.”
“There were times you came over the hill and you couldn’t see anything and just hoped the person ahead knew what they were doing,” the newspaper quoted Glynn as saying.
“We had only gone two orthree klicks,” he said, using a term for a kilometer, “and there was the fire right at the side of the road. It was coming towards us.”
Canadian military helicopters hovered overhead to look out for smoke and flames along the evacuation route, while emergency gas stations were set up to keep the convoy moving.
CNN partner CTV posted photos it said were taken as the convoy drove through the northeastern Alberta city. Flames and towering columns of smoke filled the sky.
Other people likely wil be airlifted out of the fire zone, as 7,000 were Thursday, according to authorities.
Some 15,000 people remain stranded north of the devastated city, but not all will leave, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said.
Some remain behind
Some hardy souls working for the oil industry will remain behind to tend to facilities there, authorities said. The region is known for its massive oil reserves – the third-largest in the world.
But officers are going into accessible areas and looking for signs of others, Sgt. Jack Poitras, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told reporters Thursday.
“We still have some people who have been hanging around,” he said.
Overnight, the fire’s footprint grew, racing up to the doorstep of the community of Anzac before firefighters beat it back.
Winds were expected to shift and push the fire away from developed areas.
The fire will likely burn for “weeks and weeks,” he said.
“There’s no tankers we can put at this thing to stop it,” he said, noting the fire was so large and aggressive it’s jumped a 1-kilometer wide river and created its own lightning.
The cause remains unclear, Morrison said.
But the region is in the midst of a drought, he said. Two months without appreciable rain has left vegetation dangerously dry.
Forecasters think Saturday will be dry and windy again, but there is a 40% chance of showers on Sunday and Monday.
Many evacuees are expected eventually to wind up in Edmonton, the provincial capital some 379 kilometers (236 miles) to the south, or Calgary, where residents and officials were working to set up accommodations for the influx of temporary residents.
Across the region, residents held food and clothing drives and raised money for victims. Others offered to put up families displaced by the fire. Restaurants gave out free meals. The Edmonton library system is allowing full use of its facilities and services, while Edmonton schools scrambled to welcome students.
Labatt Breweries of Canada is donating more than 69,000 cans of drinking water to firefighters and evacuees. A truck carrying more than 2,880 cases of water canned left the brewer’s Alberta distribution center on Friday.
CNN’s Dan Simon, Amanda Watts, Mallory Simon, Keith Allen, Faith Karimi, Chuck Johnston, Dave Alsup, Justin Lear, Holly Yan and David Williams contributed to this report.
