Work camps empty as fire nears
Thousands flee ‘unpredictable’ blaze, head north to Suncor, Syncrude sites
Approximately 8,000 people working at camps north of Fort McMurray have been evacuated and many more are on alert after gusting winds and high temperatures caused the wildfire to move rapidly toward them Monday evening.
At a hastily called news conference, officials said four to five camps on Aostra Road were under a mandatory evacuation order, sending workers north to the Syncrude and Suncor oilsands facilities for refuge.
The order was issued because of the “unpredictable nature” of the fire and the fact that those camps could be isolated if the road was jeopardized, said Scott Long, executive director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
Just after 10 p.m. Monday, the evacuation order was extended to all camps and facilities north of Fort McMurray to just south of Fort MacKay. The order, however, does not include Fort MacKay, Athabasca Camp and the Beaver River Camp.
There are 4,000 to 5,000 workers at the Suncor and Syncrude facilities.
Non-essential personnel there are staging an “orderly, controlled” precautionary evacuation to camps farther north. If the fire gets closer, then a mandatory evacuation order would be issued, Long said.
It remains unclear how many people are staying behind as essential staff.
The wildfire was 15 to 20 kilometres from the oilsands facilities and consuming 30 to 40 metres of forest per minute.
The fire jumped Tower Road, a dirt road where several residential trailers are located, but officials said the oilsands facilities are the main concern at this time.
The fire is burning northwest of the Fort McMurray neighbourhood of Timberlea, but officials said there is a significant burnt-out area between the fire and homes, giving the 150 to 200 firefighters on-site a significant buffer.
Within Fort McMurray itself, 300 people, mostly utility workers, are assembling at MacDonald Island Park. Another 300 or so people are gathering at the hospital. The field hospital being run by AHS continues to operate.
“We’ve just been told that because of the conditions of the fire we’ve been asked to evacuate. We’ve been given quite a lead time, so we’re just under that mandatory evacuation now,” Noralta Lodge spokeswoman Blaire McCalla said earlier in the evening.
She said there are 2,000 guests staying at the lodge and 300 staff members. The guests, who are mainly oil and gas industry workers, are being evacuated by their employers, McCalla said.
Sneh Seetal, Suncor’s spokeswoman, said 120 workers were evacuated as a precautionary measure from the MacKay River operation, lodges and camps on Aostra Road at about 3 p.m. They were all safely moved by bus to camps further north. She said they are not relocating people from the Borealis, Hudson or Millennium camps.
Earlier Monday, Premier Rachel Notley said the air quality health index in Fort McMurray had risen to extreme levels and could further delay re-entry into the city.
The provincial index is generally measured on a scale of one to 10, with 10 having the highest and most serious potential health effects. Fort McMurray’s air quality health index clocked in at a whopping 38. It is based on measurements of three contaminants: smoke, ozone and nitrogen dioxide.
“It is clear that this is something that could potentially delay recovery work and a return to the community,” Notley said Monday morning. She said residents should expect more information and some timelines for re-entry by the end of this week.
Workers and local business owners who were due to arrive in the area to assist with the re-entry efforts have been told to wait until the risk subsides, Notley said. The vehicle retrieval plan has also been put on hold.
Dr. Karen Grimsrud, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the elevated air quality levels could last for the next 24 to 48 hours.
“It’s an irritant in your lungs, so it’s going to cause you significant breathing problems without a respirator … even if you don’t have any underlying diseases, it’s still going to make a difference in your ability to breathe,” Grimsrud said.
Until the air quality deteriorated, workers had been making faster than expected progress getting critical infrastructure and services up and running, Notley said. Electricity has been restored to most of Fort McMurray, as well as municipal buildings in Anzac. Gas service has been restored to 50 per cent of the city.
The water treatment plant is working, but a boil water order remains in effect. The landfill is accepting waste and the airport is ready to accommodate commercial flights once the city reopens. More than 19,000 homes and other buildings have been assessed for structural damage.
Officials say there has been active fire growth around Fort McMurray and the blaze is only about a kilometre away from Enbridge’s Cheecham Terminal. There are bulldozers, pieces of heavy equipment and provincial and industrial firefighters working to hold the boundary around the facility, which is 70 km southeast of Fort McMurray.
There were four new wildfire starts in the past 24 hours, bringing the total up to 15 burning across the province. Three are out of control.
There are nearly 2,000 firefighters, 161 helicopters, 29 air tankers and 377 pieces of heavy equipment battling the blazes.
A fire in the Municipal District of Greenview County, 350 km northwest of Edmonton, that forced 100 to 200 people to evacuate, is now 800 hectares.
The Fort McMurray wildfire is 285,000 hectares and is 10 to 12 kilometres from the Saskatchewan border. The return of warm temperatures and low humidity means “fire conditions are really as bad now as they were on the first day of the fire and we expect a lot of fire activity today,” Notley said.
Most of Alberta remains under an “extreme fire risk” and there is still active fire growth around Fort McMurray. A fire ban remains in effect for most of the province, including Edmonton.