Wildfire chases 8,000 workers from camps north of Fort McMurray
Rural municipality cites ‘controlled, precautionary evacuation’ of 12 camps due to growing menace
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — About 8,000 workers from camps north of Fort McMurray are being ordered to leave because of an approaching wildfire.
The Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo issued an emergency alert about 9 p.m. PDT on Monday evening, saying the move was prompted by the threat of a quickly spreading wildfire.
The evacuation zone now stretches about 50 kilometres north of Fort McMurray to just south of Fort MacKay, and includes Syncrude and Suncor facilities, along with several smaller operations.
The alert instructs all camps and production facilities to leave immediately, and for all evacuees to head south on Highway 63 “if possible.”
Earlier in the day, the rural municipality had issued what it called a “controlled, precautionary evacuation” of 12 camps up to 26 kilometres north of the northern Alberta city. That affected about 4,000 workers.
“[It is not] safe to be in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo at this time,” the municipality said late Monday afternoon in a statement.
Workers were being told to head south on Highway 63, but companies running some of the camps said their workers were going north.
Syncrude Canada tweeted that buses were transporting workers to a safe location as part of its emergency plan.
Sneh Seetal, a spokesman for Suncor Energy, called it a “precautionary measure.”
Eric Kraus, a spokesman for Clean Harbours, which runs the Ruth Lake camp, also called the move “precautionary.”
“The fire, we believe, is about 35 kilometres away,” he said. “There is a significant amount of smoke.”
The entire population of Fort McMurray, more than 80,000 residents, are now entering their third week away from home. Many of the work camps were used to house evacuated residents who fled north when fire spread into the city the afternoon of May 3.
About 2,400 structures were destroyed in Fort McMurray, but essential infrastructure, including the hospital, water treatment plant and the airport, remain intact.
Crews continued to battle hot spots on the edge of the city Monday while the fires still raged out of control deeper in the forest. Hot, dry conditions were not helping firefighters.
Earlier Monday, officials warned the air quality in the Fort McMurray area was dangerously poor.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the air-quality health index is normally on a one-to-10 scale, with 10 being the worst, but the reading Monday morning was at 38.
Notley said the conditions were hampering efforts to get residents back to their homes.
“Alberta Health Services has recommended that members of the public who had been previously arranging to return to the area under various requests not return until those conditions improve,” Notley said.