About 6,600 people have been evacuated from Fort McMurray, Alberta, due to wildfires near Canada’s largest oil producing region. Thousands of other residents of the city were told to be ready to leave at any time.
Tuesday’s evacuation brought back frightening memories of the massive fires in 2016. The fire destroyed approximately 2,400 homes and stores, displaced 90,000 people, and became the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
“We know this will bring back difficult memories from the devastating fires of 2016,” Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said at a news conference Wednesday. “And I’m sure these memories will create fear and uncertainty.”
Fire season began in Canada in 2023, a record-breaking year in which about 45 million acres of forest burned, compared to the annual average of 6.1 million acres.
Last year, an unusually large fire swept across the country in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. British Columbia coast on the Pacific Ocean. Choking smoke from fires in Quebec blanketed eastern Canada’s skies, filtering and degrading air quality along the east coast of the United States.
At the height of the fires in mid-July, there were 29 large fires, which the government defines as those covering more than 100,000 hectares, or about 247,000 acres.
Federal officials said last week that prolonged dry conditions in Alberta and British Columbia have kicked off a potentially dangerous wildfire season in those regions as well as in the north.
This week’s evacuation order is one of several recently issued in northern Alberta and neighboring British Columbia. This area suffered great damage last year and has been in a drought for three years.
As of Wednesday morning, the leading edge of the fire was about 3 miles from parts of Fort McMurray. Alberta wildfires say the severity of the fires is decreasing as winds decrease and temperatures drop.
The fire is Christie Tucker, a spokeswoman for Alberta Wildfire, a provincial agency, told reporters it had consumed about 52,000 acres as of Wednesday morning. But she said the strong winds that were expanding the size of the fire, pushing it towards Port McMurray, weakened and changed direction on Wednesday. Falling temperatures also helped firefighters
Aircraft, including helicopters equipped with night vision systems, were still spraying water on the fire and measures were taken to protect buildings at Fort McMurray.
But most of the fires are sweeping through areas that burned in 2016, reducing the amount of fuel available for fires now, officials said.
Jody Butz, fire chief for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, said at a news conference Tuesday that firefighters have a “very high level of confidence” they will extinguish the fire in Fort McMurray.
He said the city has cleared more of its outskirts and has more firefighters and equipment to fight the fires than in 2016.
The two areas currently under evacuation orders were among the most extensively burned and rebuilt in 2016.
To avoid the highway chaos that meant evacuations in 2016, officials asked residents in areas not under evacuation orders to stay home until areas at greater risk were cleared.
“Please allow this community to evacuate first,” Chief Butts told residents during a news conference Tuesday. “It is important that we approach this issue safely, orderly and respectfully.”
Alex Mortlock, whose home burned down in 2016, told Canada’s public broadcaster CBC that his previous experience did not make Tuesday’s evacuation any easier.
“The same anxiety, the same thoughts are going through my mind, but this time I have kids to worry about,” he said.
Mr Mortlock said his two children under the age of six “don’t really understand” the dangerous situation created by the fire.
People who fled the area sought refuge as far south as the capital, Edmonton, about 280 miles away.
Another wildfire has broken out near Fort Nelson, British Columbia, forcing about 4,700 people to evacuate since last weekend. Firefighters’ efforts to extinguish a fire that broke out less than a mile from their community and close to neighboring Fort Nelson First Nation have been made easier.
Further east of Fort Nelson, the entire population of Cranberry Portage, Manitoba, about 700 people, was evacuated due to the wildfire. Northern Manitoba communities have been threatened by fires in the past.
The 2016 Fort McMurray fire, known as “The Beast,” resulted in an estimated C$4 billion in insurance payments and halted production in the oil sands, the country’s largest source of imported oil.
Last-minute evacuations after the fire forced many residents to negotiate a wall of flames on the south’s only highway. Although there were no direct deaths among residents or firefighters as a result of the fire, two people died in a highway collision while evacuating.
